By Queer Talk

The military has a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gay and lesbian members of the military. While most of the emphasis is placed on the “don’t ask” part of the equation, where government won’t interfere with private lives because they won’t ask you about your sex and love life, I would like to talk about the “don’t tell” part of the equation.

What this says is we will respect your service to our country, we will respect the fact you are willing to give your life in battle for us all, unless you say the words “I am gay,” at which time we no longer respect your service and the fact you put your body in between us and those who would do us harm. We don’t want to hear the truth about the world. We want to live in our fantasy world.

So, the second part of the phrase, the “don’t tell” part of the equation is mostly a matter of respect. America says don’t talk about who you are as a person. We don’t want to know who you represent. We don’t want to know the truth. We don’t want those people who care about our wounded soldiers to walk into a hospital and hold the hand of a dying soldier because they are the same sex as that soldier.

We as Americans are not giving the dignity and respect to our soldiers because we have a bazaar “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Which makes law the restriction of telling the truth. So please Mr Obama, do not allow another soldier a single injustice to occur again. 12,000 military men and women have been kicked out of the military since “Don’t ask, don’t tell” has been enacted.

Lieutenant Choi is about to be the next in a long line of loyal soldiers to be kicked out, not because he was bad at his job, quite the contrary. He is being kicked out because he spoke the truth. He was honest with himself and country. This is a tragic injustice. Mr Obama, please end this before more acts of injustice are committed in the name of America.

Tags: Don'tAskDon'tTell, Gays, Lesbians, Lieutenant Choi, Military, Obama