The Department of Defense has surveyed 400,000 military personnel about... the survey is supposed to provide data to make an informed decision about how to handle gays and lesbians serving in the military. See Pentagon Slams Critics Of Don't Ask Don't Tell Survey by Megan Carpentier (Talking Points Memo).
The organizations and activists who favor gays and lesbians being able to openly serve in the military are miffed. They have Congress on their side. Nominally, President Barack Obama is on their side. There was no need for data to justifying discrimination. It was merely put into policy and criminal law.
I'm a former military officer. I have long favored (like before Bill Clinton was elected in 1992) gays and lesbians being allowed to openly serve in the military.
I find the principle of surveying military personnel un-military.
If Congress changes the law and the President of the United States says gays and lesbians should be allowed to openly serve, I expect everyone from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to the newest recruit to respond, "Aye, aye, sir."
The idea that there are people who can't serve with out gays and lesbians in 2010 is absurd. Anybody who has that big a problem with gays should be discharged.
And surveying military personnel just seems... wrong.
If the military feels the need to survey some group, it should survey potential recruits. Will allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve reduce the number of people willing to enlist?
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