What’s Your “Daily” Kos? Does it Change?
By James Hipps, first posted at GayAgenda.Com. and cross-filched here.
I ran across this very interesting comment on a short post I wrote about Illinois Rep. Mike Quiqley and speaking out against Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
I’m not posting this to call anyone out. I do feel however, if nothing else, it could perhaps show something very positive, and that is attitudes and ideas change, and many times that change is for the better.
I believe it’s crucial that gays receive support rather than recriminations. And yet many gays enter the military in their teens and are faced with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, a policy under which the dismissal of gays from the military has increased rather than decreased.
If you want someone to blame for this horrible policy, look no further than ex-military people who raised their voices in apparent unison back in 1993, demanding that Clinton not allow gays to participate in the military. Here’s just one example from back then and it comes from a surprising source: Markos Moulitsas, the owner of the DailyKos blog, who was in the military before he started his DailyKos blog. Here’s what he wrote and published at his college newspaper for other teenaged gays to read:
By MARKOS C.A. MOULITSAS
It’s truly disturbing how much ado has been made over Bill Clinton’s campaign promise to lift the ban on homosexuals from the U.S. military. It’s ironic how it has taken a president who has never served in the military to make a promise that affects the military in such a negative manner.
Those who have served in the military, such as myself, understand the demands and pressures of military life are incompatible with allowing integration with homosexuals. I’m neither socially conservative or prejudiced, and neither is liberal columnist Mike Royko, Gen. Colin Powell, and influential liberal Democrats Sam Nunn and Les Aspin, all who’ve come out against lifting the ban.
Under military circumstances, as much has to be done as possible to focus the unit’s mission and keep disciplinary problems to a minimum. Worrying about whether the known homosexual sleeping next to you is watching as you change your underwear may seem trivial as you read this, but to the soldier who’s short-tempered after three weeks in the field and four hours of daily sleep, it becomes a matter of great importance to his pride and sensibilities. And in any case, there aren’t many people who would change clothes in a group of co-workers if members of the opposite sex were in the same room watching. There is something inherently uncomfortable about it.
Such fears would go a long way in disrupting efficiency and morale in a unit.
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