The Immorality of "Don't ask, Don't Tell"

Recently the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Peter Pace caused a stir when he defended the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on the basis that homosexuality, like adultery is immoral. Therefore, it should be prohibited. If you keep in the closet, then well it's okay, but don't come out of the closet.

Nathaniel Frank, a senior research fellow at UCSB's Michael D. Palmer Center, writes a cogent response in today's LA Times. He notes that usually the rationale for the don't ask, don't tell policy is that society is divided on this issue so having openly gay persons serving in the military would undermine military cohesion. That was not, however, Pace's argument. He learned as a youth that homosexuality was immoral and that influences his opposition to homosexuality and his support for the current policy. Trying to root out closeted gays isn't possible when you need soldiers, apparently.

Frank suggests, first of all, that the usual reasoning doesn't hold because 24 nations allow openly gay persons to serve in the military with no problems in cohesion. Besides upwards of 72% of Americans in a Zogby poll have no problem with gays serving in the military.

So the question then remains, is homosexuality immoral? And hat does that mean. And is homosexuality harmful to the military of for that matter to families.

He writes:

The same holds true in the debate over same-sex marriage, which many oppose because they presume it harms families and children. But no reputable study shows any harm whatsoever to children living in same-sex households.

So if homosexuality isn't actually harmful to important institutions in American life — the military and the family — how is it immoral? Social science evidence will not persuade millions of people to change their moral code, especially those who are content to adopt without question the morality they were raised with.

But if you're going to say something is immoral, I believe you should be willing to consider why — to examine what is bad or hurtful about it. More people are harmed in this world, I would submit, by the refusal to look and to see than by the wish to ask and to tell.

Interesting article!