Gays in the Military Essay Example

The issue regarding a homosexual’s right to serve openly in the armed forces of the United States has become quite a controversial topic over the past few months. It started with President Obama’s first State of the Union address, in which he pledged to repeal the current “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that was put in place in 1993 by congress under President Clinton, in which gays are allowed to serve in the military as long as they do not disclose their sexual orientation. Recently, Obama has made good on his promise of “change”, and brought the debate on whether or not to repeal the DADT policy to congress and it is currently under review. If the policy is repealed, it would allow for gays to serve openly in the armed forces; which means that not only could they freely disclose their sexual orientation, but could also engage in homosexual behavior without recourse. The important question we as Americans need to be asking ourselves is “would repealing the DADT truly make our armed forces stronger, or would it in fact weaken our country’s military strength?” The truth is that although gay rights are an important issue that needs to be dealt with within our nation; homosexuality within the armed forces would actually deteriorate the military effectiveness of our country’s fighting force; and the repeal of the current DADT policy would be an extremely costly mistake for our country to make. A recent poll taken by the Washington Post / ABC news showed that 75 percent of Americans support ending the DADT policy (Capehart, 2010); and a similar New York Times survey indicated that 70 percent of Americans show support for gay men and lesbians serving openly in the armed forces (Sussman, 2010). The problem with these extremely high numbers in support of the repeal is that it has become evident that Americans are looking at this issue solely as a gay rights issue, rather than the military effectiveness issue that it really is. After all, the true purpose of