Quote:
Originally Posted by KSig RC
The problem is that pragmatism seems more like expedience on this issue, and expedience often leads to legal issues.
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For the last ten-fifteen years, it may have just been expedience, but I think there really was a time, pre-Stonewall certainly, when allowing openly gay soldiers would have created all kind of morale issues and might have actually jeopardized the ability to recruit when there wasn't a draft.
I recognize the limits of making this point. I certainly don't think racially segregated units should have been justified and continued to be justified because of the racism of soldiers they wanted to recruit.
But I think we all recognize that there's a limit to how forward thinking the military can honestly be expected to be.
Should we have expected them to be out in front of society at large when it can to gay rights? Certainly, they don't need to continue to lag behind, but it's not an area where we ought to have put social policy ahead of military effectiveness if you ask me.
(ETA: I realize my pre-Stonewall to last 10-15 years in the first paragraph leaves a big gap for action. My point is when would you have said that accepting homosexuality in co-workers became the norm?)
Now, the time seems right. If not now, within ten years.