All of this discussion of banning military recruiting from campuses because of their discriminatory processes could be eliminated if the military got rid of one our governments dumbest policies: the don’t ask don’t tell policy.
There is no logical reason for the military to dismiss military personnel who are openly gay.
First off, our military is facing the worst recruiting crisis in modern times. Recently to deal with shortages, the military has lowered its standards, taking more at-risk recruits than ever before. Given that our armed forces are stretched thin and having trouble getting people to sign up, it makes no sense to throw out well-qualified men and women because they are gay.
Second, many of the countries that we are fighting alongside in Iraq and Afghanistan allow openly gay men and women to serve. Great Britain has allowed openly gay men and women to serve for the past five years. They have experienced little problems with this. Our soldiers are fighting alongside gay men and gay women from other countries and there appear to be no problems from this.
The policy of dismissing gay men and women from our military is immoral and besides that it’s bad policy.
MICHAEL ZICKAR
professor, PSYCHOLOGY
