Army News, news from Iraq, - Army Times

But despite our government’s claims of liberty for all, we leave homosexuals out. When we deny their right to military service, we improperly restrict the franchise of citizenship and give in to homophobic prejudice very like the unreasoned racial and gender prejudices of the past.

The government has a constitutional duty to protect liberty, which it does through the military. If the American military sees and is allowed to see itself as the protector of some but not all Americans, democracy fails.

We can easily see why some people are physically disqualified for military service, but it is much harder to see why the fact of private consensual sex between adult citizens disqualifies them from military service. What democratic principle justifies this discrimination?

The law barring gay military service imposes private religious and moral commitment through the instrument of public law. Gays and lesbians are American citizens, and many are silently serving in our military now as they have in all of our wars. The war in Iraq highlights the shortsightedness of discharging Arabic linguists who happen to be gay. But far worse than this failure in reasoning is the more general democratic failure of refusing full citizenship to able and willing citizens making personal choices the majority does not like.

Many will say that homosexual practice violates “good order and discipline” in the military; therefore, homosexuals in uniform threaten the national defense. This argument claims that “military necessity” justifies treating gay and lesbian Americans as less than full citizens. This is the same reasoning that once kept out women and blacks. The military did not like being ordered to integrate, but the government said it must.

It is time for the government to do the same with homosexuals. Congress should change the law that imposes the gay ban.

Some have argued that homosexuality spreads diseases. This is false. Undisciplined, uninformed, unprotected sexuality spreads disease no matter the gender.

Others will say homosexuality is sinful. But that is not the proper debate. The question in a democracy is not whether a given act is sinful but whether it violates the principle of liberty and is, therefore, illegal. Many see gambling, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and any kind of sex outside marriage as sinful. But those do not preclude military service.

Doesn’t the logic that homosexuality is a sin justifying prejudice obligate us to discriminate against all sinners — adulterers, gamblers, drinkers, smokers, sex workers, sex customers and married people who perform the same acts homosexuals practice? It is not a question of sin. It is a question of liberty, a question going to the heart of our democracy.

As citizens we should talk less about the sanctity of marriage and more about the meaning of liberty. We should not use raw political power to impose private religious conviction.

The Christian message of the gospel is a message of love and forgiveness. It is hard to reconcile the beauty of that message with crusades, inquisitions, burnings at the stake, lynchings and the continued unloving, unforgiving prejudices shown by some Christians to gay and lesbian Americans.

Our politicians are smart people. They know better. Many are privately ashamed of their public stance but find it necessary to maintain the public stance to win election.

The world’s greatest democracy now refuses the franchise because of prejudice. Most of our NATO allies allow gays and lesbians to openly serve.

We can and should become a more just society by living up to our own best democratic principle. We are now finally ashamed about our legal prejudices against women and minorities. Legally at least, each citizen of color and each woman counts for one.

But lesbians and gays count for less than one. We can do better.