Repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell

Today while running some errands, I happened to be listening to NPR radio and they were talking about the repeal of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. For those of you who don’t know about this policy, you can find a comprehensive explanation here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_ask,_don't_tell For the Reader’s Digest version: This policy restricts the United States military from efforts to discover or reveal closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring those who are openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual from military service.

First let me say that I’ve never ever been in the military, although I enjoyed 4 wonderful years in high school JROTC. I am sure that there are credible arguments on both side of this issue and the majority of those discussions I cannot intelligently participate in (at this point). However, I do want to address a comment by a caller on the radio program that I heard today when they compared the struggle for homosexual people to that of blacks during Jim Crow days.

I am an African American male. There is no getting around that. There is no way that I can debate that… ancestry, maybe, but the fact that I am black is indisputable. I do not have a choice in the matter and unless I go through a painful bleaching process, I will always be this way until I’m caught up! (smiles) I don’t think that the same can be said for homosexuals. I have heard discussions/arguments on wiring in the brain and how people have tendencies that cannot be reversed, but to me, in my limited sphere of understanding, homosexuality seems like a choice. If someone wants to be “in the closet” they can choose to let people know whether or not their preference is for the same sex. In a business meeting, barrack or locker room, when looking at me and interacting with me you will know I am black and there is nothing I can do about that. The same cannot be said for a homosexual… they can “choose” to inform whomever they want about orientation and alter their preference if they decide to. Not the same for me.

Please do not get me wrong. Well, first let me clarify. I do not condone homosexual behavior. I think it is unnatural and behaviorally and morally repugnant. I think there is a misfire in the brain somewhere and just because society makes a shift doesn’t all-of-a-sudden make it right. To me it is like saying, stealing is wrong, but because of our financial woes, we find reasons to justify the behavior and because influential people begin to get on the bandwagon it becomes socially accepted. Wrong!

With that being said, I know/have associates who are homosexuals and love them the way that Christ loves me. I will call them my brother or sister and do whatever I can to help them, but will not compromise where I morally stand to appease them and diminish my opinion on their behavior. I think we are heading in the wrong direction when we cannot tell the difference between something that we have control over and something that we have no control over… or in other words… apples and oranges. I think we are in trouble when our political agenda supersedes right and wrong.