Supporters of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (myself included) objected
to its repeal in large part because we want to protect the U.S.
military’s unique warrior culture. But “don’t worry!” we were told.
“Gay men and women don’t want to change the military culture; they
just want to serve!”
That is certainly true of some gay men and women, but not
necessarily those who have most agitated for openly gay military
service. Darrell Choat, for instance, has an
op-ed in today’s Washington Post in which he basically
rails against the culture of the Marine Corps and demands that the
Marines become positively gay-friendly.
Choat complains that “remarks by senior Marine leaders made
clear that their conception of ‘Marine’ did not include those who
were gay.” Consequently, he whines, “gay soldiers and Marines
serving in Iraq and Afghanistan were disrespected by military and
civilian leaders…
My challenge is not to simply acknowledge my sexuality as a
Marine officer, but for my actions to reflect the legacy of the
Declaration of Independence — that all Americans are created equal
and deserve equal consideration from their government. My task is
to demand no less from my country and Corps…
It is time for the Marine Corps to end the bigotry and prejudice
regarding sexual orientation and to give Marines, combat veterans
and Purple Heart recipients the respect and consideration they have
earned.
In other words, Choat doesn’t want simply to allow gay men and
women to serve; he wants the Marine Corps to affirm homosexuality
as a positive good. He wants to ensure that homosexuality is not
disparaged and shunned, but instead acknowledged, praised, and
sanctioned. His “task,” after all, “is to demand no less from [his]
country and Corps.”
This is a dangerous line of thinking that is essentially
coercive and totalitarian in nature. It is one thing to ask that
the military accept and tolerate gay men and women. However, it is
another thing entirely to demand that traditionalists and religious
believers — of whom there are many in the Marine Corps —
recognize and champion homosexuality.
And although Choat doesn’t say so explicitly, the logical and
inevitable next step is to demand gay sensitivity training and
reeducation of military service members. You may think that this
will never happen, only it already has: in the civilian workplace.
“Four respected San Diego firefighters were ordered, against
their wishes, to participate in uniform on their city fire truck in
the city’s annual [2007] ‘Gay Pride’ parade,” reports
LifeSiteNews.
During the course of the ensuing three hour-long ordeal, the
firefighters were subjected to obscene sexual taunts from
homosexuals lining the parade route.
This included the following statements: “show me your
hose,” “you can put out my fire,” “you’re making me hot,” “give me
mouth-to-mouth,” “you look hungry, why don’t you have a twinkie
(from a man wearing a “Girth and Mirth” t-shirt),” and “blow my
hose.”
These firemen are devoted husbands and fathers. When they
refused to respond to the crowd, some in the crowd turned hostile
and started shouting, “F-k you firemen” and others began “flipping
them off.”
With the help of the Thomas More Law Center, the firefighters
sued
the city of San Diego and a jury ruled in their favor.
Admittedly, theirs was an extreme case involving a gross abuse
of authority. Still, the totalitarian demand for politically
correct thinking that animated the city’s illicit and coercive
action against the firefighters also infuses Choat’s rant against
the Marine Corps.
Indeed, in Choat’s view, the Marines’ refusal to celebrate
homosexuality amounts to nothing more than “bigotry and
prejudice.” It never seems to occur to Choat that, in fact,
the Corps’s martial culture is based on a shared sense of manhood
and masculinity, and that, therefore, the Marines have good reason
not to positively affirm and promote homosexuality.
