A flashback to the 70's. Now every time a soldier is late to formation, disobeys an order, etc. the NCO will be "prejudiced" against gays (instead of / including any other minority), degrading discipline and moral.
I sat through countless NCO meetings where deserving soldiers did not get promotions because we "had to promote a minority". I turned down stripes rather than reward undeserving soldiers.
I too remember the “race” training in the early 70s. It was the biggest bunch of indoctrination/pure crap ever. It faded a bit through the rest of my career but it was ever present. As an enlisted Marine I was on the receiving end of affirmative action promotion consideration. Turned down twice to promote a minority and a woman. My boss and my battalion commander were pretty incensed but they were powerless as well. As an AF officer it was generally less evident but still there as an undercurrent. I had contemporaries who were promoted despite DUIs and low performance simply because of race or gender.
I was fortunate that I didn't have to deal with all the problems that resulted from this decision. Life on a Nike-Hercules was tough enough without throwing women into the mix.
Thank heavens that the AF has WAPS testing for promotion up to Master Sergeant (E-7).
There’s no place to check for race, sex, whatever in that system. You take the tests (2 of them, one for AF knowledge and the other - job knowledge) and then the AF rack-n-stacks the results. And then, after determining the number of (insert rank here) the AF needs, they take that many - starting from the top.