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.