Monday, December 20, 2010

Expedite Repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

A repeal of the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prevented openly homosexual* individuals from serving in the United States military passed in Congress this weekend and will be signed Wednesday morning by President Barack H. Obama. However, it could take months for the new policy to actually take effect so that openly homosexual individuals can enlist in the military, and homosexuals currently serving can do so without the risk of being "outed."

The issue with this is that in the meantime, homosexuals who are unemployed and could enlist in the military to have a paying job serving in the defense of this country and the development of freedom abroad will have to wait. With unemployment over 9.8%, it is in the best interest of this country to move forward quickly and for the military to immediately allow those who are openly homosexual to serve. There is no reason that someone should be collecting unemployment because they are unable to get a job with the military due to being a homosexual. Taxpayer funds would be saved by moving quickly to change the policy, and the economy would be better off. 

Some counter-argue about issues that must be resolved of how homosexuals should be dealt with in the military. The solution: treat homosexuals the same as anyone else, and do what is going to be best for the American taxpayer, which is to give no special treatment to homosexuals (such as special shower time.) The military has gone through changes before. In 1948, segregation of races in the military was eliminated. In fact, it would likely save money today for the military to move to a gender-neutral system, not segregating genders. Building separate men's and women's quarters/barracks comes at additional taxpayer expense, and this expense could be eliminated to save taxpayer dollars. 

One topic that has come up about openly homosexual individuals serving is if they will be subject to violence from fellow service-members. The solution to this problem, is that the military should adopt a policy where any service-member who engages in violence against another service-member, regardless of sexuality, is charged with treason and executed for attacking someone serving their own country. With the penalty of death, service-members will avoid such violent acts.

* For the purposes of simplicity in this article, I used the term homosexual as military policy considers those who are not heterosexual, such as bisexuals, to be homosexuals.

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