Radley has posted an interesting entry on Gay-Bashing America Haters.
Allow me to weigh with my own perspective. As a Marine no longer on active or reserve duty, I knew many homosexual Marines and Sailors, who for obvious reasons kept that status secret.
I don’t now, nor did I then buy the argument that openly homosexual Marines would destroy morale. Morale is a top-down issue and is set by the actions and attitudes of a unit’s officers and staff NCO’s. Any officer who claimed that homosexuals in uniform would harm or destroy morale was simply not worth his or her salt as a leader.
A morale issue such as this would remain a problem only if unit leaders either ignored it or encouraged it. Either way, the fault would be theirs alone for letting it continue, or as is usually the case, manufacturing the morale issue in the first place.
As a former NCO and leader of Marines (as the saying goes) I didn’t put up that b.s. and as such, it didn’t happen among my Marines. They learned that a Marine is a Marine is a Marine. They can hate homosexuals when they aren’t on Uncle Sam’s time.
The morale issue presented by officers and staff NCO’s against homosexual service is just a convenient excuse for ignoring bigotry and failure on their own behalf. What is required is to lay down the law and say no more. Those who really want to serve their country won’t have a problem with that.
The military isn’t about catering to redneckery and religious intolerance on this issue. We don’t allow that mindset to triumph with regards to segregation in the ranks and allowing women to serve. Quite simply, the morale issue isn’t even discussed or catered to in that respect. Let’s stop pretending that this issue is any different.
No more excuses for bigotry and poor leadership. After all, if potential morale issues were allowed to dicate DoD policy then we would still have segregated ranks. Real leaders don’t use morale as an excuse for enforcing policy. Sometimes enforcement involves open discussion and reinforcement of what it means to be a Marine. Sometimes it involves getting bent (punitive physical training). In extreme cases, a problem Marine could face legal action in the form of non-judicial punishment or force worse offenses, court-martial. Real leaders fix morale issues. They don’t surrender to them.