Published: May 04, 2009 03:51 pm      

STUMPTALK: Ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is a bad idea

According to news reports, in the not too distant future President Obama will sign an executive order ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the Armed Forces. For those who have been asleep, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is the policy that prohibits openly homosexual men and women from serving in the Armed Forces. Typical of the smart people, this thoughtless action will do great harm to the military and to the nation’s security.  

First, people who will not send their sons on overnight camping trips with openly homosexual male scoutmasters, and this is most people, will do everything they can to keep their sons from enlisting. That widespread social attitude was decisively demonstrated in the recent election in California where Proposition 8, which banned same sex marriage, passed by a comfortable majority.

Next, discouraging heterosexual males from service will change the culture of the services. This fact is well established by the parallel example in my Catholic Church. Faithful Catholic writer Michael Rose’s study of Catholic seminaries, "Goodbye, Good Men," presents overwhelming evidence that a lavender mafia emerged in the post Vatican II Catholic Church, gained control of admissions in many seminaries, and literally pushed away young, strongly faithful heterosexual men who gave their full assent to the church’s teachings on sexuality.

The priestly sexual abuses that received the most publicity were the very few pedophilia cases involving priests John Geoghan and Paul Shanley, but more widespread and not widely reported was the abuse of older adolescent boys by homosexual priests, aided and abetted by an episcopacy that disgracefully looked the other way and sometimes covered up.

Evidence indicates that as many as 50 percent of priests and not a few bishops are homosexual. Strong leadership from Pope Benedict XVI forces them to behave themselves, but the culture remains, and it will take a generation of strong leadership like that provided by Benedict to root it out.

Now imagine what can happen in the military, another hierarchical organization but one where leaders have much more authority, when openly homosexual men and women are allowed to serve. This will drastically change and cause great harm to the cultural cohesion of the military and naval services. As noted above, heterosexual male enlistments will drastically decline, and just like the church, homosexual leaders will emerge to influence promotions and leadership assignments. At least in the church they have to hide their sexual perversions, but if allowed to operate openly in the military, they will achieve positions of authority where they can coerce their subordinates, something which happens now regularly with women serving in close situations with men.

The sexual harassment and abuse of women in the services is common but not reported because feminists have cowed pusillanimous generals and admirals, forcing them to sweep the problems under the rug, but it’s there and everyone knows about it (See “The Great Shame,” New York Times, Bob Herbert, 3-21-09).

Remember the basic function of the Armed Forces: to efficiently and with a minimum of casualties, kill people and break things in defense of the nation. The military is not an equal opportunity jobs program or an organ for social justice or experimentation; it’s for fighting the nation’s enemies.

Let us hope that President Obama’s legacy will not one day include a military version of Michael Rose’s "Goodbye, Good Men."