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Washington Post: Maintaining Ban is Shortsighted & Unjust

This morning's Washington Post includes an editorial from the paper calling for repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The Post still holds the record for the most pro-repeal editorials; the paper's editorial board has demanded an end to the law more than a dozen times. (Just a few of the other Post editorials can be found here, here, here and here.) Responding to the recent story about the military posting recruitment ads on an LGBT website, The Post writes that, "Since 1993, more than 11,000 people have been discharged from the services because of their homosexuality. Of those, 800 were in positions deemed 'mission-critical' by the Pentagon. Those would be combat engineers, medical professionals and linguists (58 of whom spoke Arabic) -- the very people the Army, Navy and Air Force were looking for when their job postings showed up on GLEE.com, which stands for Gay, Lesbian & Everyone Else." "The whole sorry episode," the paper concludes, "highlights the absurdity of the ban on openly gay people in the military. Israel, Australia, Britain and 21 other countries have no problem with gays and lesbians serving openly in their armed forces. With its military stretched to the breaking point, the United States should follow their wise lead. That it doesn't is as shortsighted as it is unjust." We couldn't agree more. You can send a letter to the editor applauding this morning's editorial by emailing .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). - Steve Ralls

Labels: editorials, in the news, recruiting, the washington post

10-26-07