This editorial was originally printed in the San Jose Mercury News
Trained in Arabic at military expense, Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Stephen Benjamin volunteered to serve in Iraq, where he provided intelligence to a Marine combat unit. “Exceptional leader,” his captain wrote on an evaluation. “Extremely focused on mission accomplishment.”
Benjamin wanted to re-enlist. Instead, he was kicked out of the Navy because he’d “told” in a chat room what everyone he served with already knew: He’s gay.
It’s time to dump the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. It makes no sense to lower standards for new recruits, as the military has been forced to do, while turning away highly skilled volunteers like Benjamin because of their sexual orientation.
More than 11,000 gays have been forced out of the military by the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, including 58 Arabic linguists and hundreds of others with critically needed skills.
Why?
When the policy passed in 1993 as a Clintonian compromise, military leaders said their troops wouldn’t accept gay comrades; open homosexuality would hurt morale and unit cohesion, they feared.
That probably wasn’t true at the time, but it’s certainly not true now. In a 2006 Zogby survey of military personnel who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan, three-quarters said they’re comfortable interacting with gays and lesbians; only 5 percent say they’re “very uncomfortable.”
U.S. allies such as Britain, Canada and Israel have allowed gays to serve openly for years now without reporting any of the problems that U.S. military leaders fear.
Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., is leading the fight for HR 1246, which would ban discrimination in the military on the basis of sexual orientation. It’s time. “Willing and able to do the job” should be the standard.
The men and women of the U.S. military are brave enough to risk bombs, bullets and mortars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They can handle the stress of serving with out-of- the-closet gays. Indeed, many already find it to be no stress at all.
