Fox News Covers DADT

by: Brandon Friedman

Thu Mar 12, 2009 at 15:25:50 PM EDT

Organizers said several retired military officers, members of Congress and individuals who were discharged under Don't Ask Don't Tell will speak at the noon rally on the Capitol lawn in support of The Military Readiness Enhancement Act, a bill recently introduced by Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., that would overturn the policy.

"This is an important civil rights issue. We also need the strongest military possible, and we need to recruit the best and brightest Americans. Some happen to be gay," Tauscher said Monday.

Supporters of the bill say Don't Ask Don't Tell not only affects capable people currently serving, but it discourages future recruits at a time when military readiness has been stretched thin.

"This is about strength, about the fighting power of the military. It's about numbers and about kicking qualified people out of the military," said Brian McGough, senior legislative adviser to VoteVets.org, a veteran-run political action committee and action fund that has helped to elect Democrats over the last two election cycles. SLDN organizers consider VoteVets.org one of its key "straight" allies in its Capitol Hill campaign.

But opposition to having homosexuals serve openly in the Armed Forces remains very strong.

An open-door policy on gays in the military would throw the ranks into turmoil, the bill's opponents say.

"The ban is in place for a reason -- open homosexuality poses many problems to good order, discipline and unit cohesion," says Robert Knight, a senior writer for Coral Ridge Ministries and former head of the Culture and Family Institute in Washington.

"There is going to be some be some very heavy pushback from people in the military and civilians (on this) ... this is a train wreck waiting to happen."

Elaine Donnelly, director of the Center for Military Readiness, insisted the military doesn't want to lift the ban.

"We've been warning of this for many months," she said, adding that Obama's openness to overturning Don't Ask Don't Tell has recharged gay rights activists who for years have been thwarted in their attempts to force a gay agenda on an unwitting military.

Donnelly cited a recent poll in Military Times that showed 58 percent of its readers oppose the idea of an openly gay service, with 10 percent saying they would not re-enlist if the ban were lifted.

"We can't afford to lose that many good people in the military," Donnelly said.

But critics say the poll results were gleaned from the magazine's readership, and did not reflect the current active-duty demographic, which they say would include younger servicemembers who may be more tolerant of gay rights and are already serving side-by-side with gays.

"I served with people who were gay and everyone knew it, but we all brushed it off, it is what it is," said McGough, an Army veteran of both Afghanistan and Iraq.

On balance, this is a good piece (though VoteVets supports more than just Democrats).  What I think is most noteworthy is that the media has to keep going to fringe religious extremists like Robert Knight (who wrote and directed "a video about recovery from homosexuality") and Elaine Donnelly in order to get comments from people who oppose allowing gays to serve openly.  If you notice, Fox didn't get a military source to make the case against gays serving in the military.  In fact, the military guy in the interview--Brian McGough--is a heterosexually married Purple Heart recipient who's served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, I'm not trying to make the case that there aren't troops who oppose the idea of allowing gays to serve openly.  In an organization that largely mirrors American society--like the military does--there are plenty of people uncomfortable with gay Americans serving in the Armed Forces.  But troops aren't shrill about it like these moral crusaders are.  Most people in the military--whether they see homosexuality as a choice or not--have more pressing issues with which to deal in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Most soldiers and marines, whether they're comfortable or not, have served alongside those they knew were gay, and it's typically seen as a big, giant non-issue within the ranks.  And even those who oppose a repeal of DADT have pretty much come to grudgingly accept that they're in the minority.  Sort of as an "Okay, fine, but just keep that shit away from me and don't hit on me" type thing.  Society has changed a lot since the early 1990s, and the troops recognize that.  And, as I said a couple of weeks ago, most soldiers these days don't really care if you're not straight, so long as you can shoot straight.  Or speak Arabic.  Or Pashto.

And kudos to Fox News for recognizing the absurdity of the Military Times poll cited by Donnelly.  I deconstructed that spurious "survey" a while back, too.

In the end, fortunately, the longer the media continues to use non-veteran homophobes like Robert Knight and Elaine Donnelly as spokespeople for those who oppose repealing DADT, the faster it's gonna be repealed.  So I look forward to hearing more of their weird, bigoted rants soon.

UPDATE: The AP reports that the Army discharged 11 more soldiers in January because they were open about being gay.