Be All That You Can Be … Except Gay

It has long been my belief that the true purpose behind DADT - and all anti-gay measures for that matter - is to denigrate and marginalize gays for the simple reason that we reject the Christian/Christianist religious belief that same sex love and relations are sinful. DADT is legalized religious discrimination, plan and simple, and its continued existence as the law of the land makes a mockery of the U. S. Constitution. I stumbled upon an op-ed in the Arizona Daily Wildcat (the student paper of the University of Arizona) by Storm Byrd, a sophomore majoring in political science, that did a great job summing up such anti-gay discrimination. Here are some highlights that John McCain would do well to read and learn from:

The anti-homosexuality measure [DADT] has been legitimizing homophobia since 1993, and it's about time the abomination be disregarded. The notion that sexual orientation interferes with one's ability to command officers in military service is absolutely ludicrous.
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The rationale for the policy is that if openly homosexual persons are serving together, it could be difficult for service members to stay dedicated to their jobs. But military branches pride themselves on their professionalism. Why is the military hesitant to trust that their soldiers can't maintain an expected level of professionalism and restraint? Do the military branches have that little faith in their service members - those men and women who claim to "be all they can be"?
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The fact of the matter is that the military, along with many other American institutions, are firm investors in the idea that homosexuality somehow leads to uncontrollable, deviant sexual behavior. At some point in our history, the general opinion of homosexuality became that gay men and women somehow cannot control their sexuality and will inevitably just be running around having sexual encounters left and right. By this rule, a homosexual has no sense of professionalism or any personal restraint. It's almost as if to say that being openly homosexual is some sort of personally detrimental disorder or disease. Of course, this couldn't be further from the truth.
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What can so obviously be concluded is that the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is solely enacted in the name of exploiting the efforts of homosexuals, while not embracing them fully as a people. Essentially, the message is this: Yes, you can die for this country; no, you can't expect to be treated the same as all of our straight officers if we find out that you're gay.

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The younger generations increasingly recognize the utter idiocy of legalized discrimination against LGBT Americans. Homophobia is one of the fruits of religious bigotry and it needs to be eradicated.