A military watchdog says she's disappointed at the response Defense Secretary Robert Gates gave to a recent question about efforts to lift the military's ban on homosexuals.
Gates is pushing a cautious approach toward changing the 1993 law that prohibits homosexuals from serving in the armed forces. He says he is not taking a position on whether the policy should be changed. But after indicating to a crowd in Pennsylvania that implementing a change could take years, he told reporters traveling with him to Rhode Island that overturning it would be very difficult. Then he noted that President Harry S. Truman had signed an executive order integrating the armed services in 1948, "and that it was five years before the process was completed." Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, has a problem with Gates equating the homosexual ban with integration of the military. "I was disappointed to see Secretary Gates equate the demands of gay activists to the leadership of those who honorably fought for civil rights for minorities in our military. This is not a civil rights issue," she contends. Donnelly argues that Gates' analogy breaks down completely when applied it to the integration of women into the U.S. military. "Pentagon officials do not order them to constantly live in conditions the current law describes as 'forced intimacy' in close quarters with persons who may be sexually attracted to them," she notes. "Would the Secretary of Defense introduce such a policy? Well of course Secretary Gates would not do that." So Donnelly wonders why Gates is making statements that suggest the 1993 law banning homosexual military service will be or should be repealed.
If you believe OneNewsNow.com is an important source for Christian news, please consider a small tax-deductible gift for this service.
