[Mr. Silverback]

"I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens."

Really? Did we bring the draft back? Do we still ask people at MEPS if they're homosexuals?

No? Then we aren't forcing anyone to do any such thing, Rear Admiral Mullen.

[Constitutions Grandchild]

So long as the armed forces can prevent from happening what happened in seminaries in the Catholic Church, then I don't have a particular problem with it. Better to open your mouth and confirm that you're gay, than to keep it shut and have everyone “think” you're gay. If it becomes a haven and a hierarchy of gays protecting the criminal acts of gays, then I'd say we have a problem.

When the seminaries became bath houses for priests who had absolutely no intention of conducting themselves with chastity or morally, then it became a mess. Straight priests were treated poorly and finally retreated to being single or taking a wife, instead of serving the Body of Christ through the Mass.

Let's see how this goes, but somehow I can't imagine the military would enforce moral and ethical guidelines more successfully if the ratio of gays to straights becomes unbalanced. I don't care HOW disciplined they think they are. A few bad apples placed in the wrong rank, or the wrong guy has a pass made and this could go amazingly awry. Whether you want to proudly state you're gay...whatever.