The Veterans Unloved

[Daveparts]

The Veterans Unloved
By David Glenn Cox




We celebrate Veterans Day to acknowledge those who have served, who have signed a piece of paper forgoing their own rights under the United States Constitution to protect our own. They place themselves in harm's way under the universal code of military justice, and under that code homosexuality is a crime.

Much like the Japanese-American soldiers during World War II, we treat them as guilty without charge because of who they are. Like African-American troops of that day, we didn’t want their help because they were considered inferior. The firings of much-needed Arabic speaking translators during the Bush administration is case in point, just as in World War II, pallets of blood donated by African Americans were left to rot on the dock because they were deemed unworthy to save the lives of white boys.

How noble and how sick, we talk of perversion and of choice; we as Americans have a choice. The choice to be homophobic or not, just as the Catholic Church once made the choice to call Galileo a heretic for his theory that the planets traveled round the sun rather than the other way around. They made the choice; Galileo only pointed out the facts, and under pressure of the rack or the thumb screw he could have been made to recant, but that wouldn’t have changed the facts. The perversion among us is in the heterosexual community.

The conservatives cry out, “It’s a lifestyle choice!” If so, it is one of the most successful lifestyle choices ever made. Despite fear of death and persecution for making that "choice," it has been with us for as long as recorded history. Empires, religions and philosophies have come and gone, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. And still homosexuality is with us. Perhaps Pharaoh told the Jews in Egypt as well, “It is a lifestyle choice.”

We view history through a prism lens and see only what we wish to see, and ignore those things which don’t fit into our preconceived notions. Some of the greatest minds to ever inhabit the planet were not heterosexual. Leonardo da Vinci is famous as an artist but he made much of his hard coin as a military engineer. Alexander the Great conquered the largest empire ever on the face of the Earth but would be considered unfit to serve as a buck private in the U.S. Army. But prejudice is insidious. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was seen as a great leap forward but is really no different than “separate but equal.”

We pride ourselves as a nation built on freedom; we codify property rights that a man's home truly is his castle. But a sizable percentage of our American family is not free to live as they wish. Don’t ask, don’t tell says that we will look the other way while you commit a crime. But what is their crime? Why must they hide? What are we afraid of? This population of Americans are us and we are them! They are our cousins and aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters. It was only 65 years ago that African Americans were not viewed as intelligent enough to fly fighter aircraft. There is poignant footage of the African American cook firing a machine gun at Japanese Zeros during the Pearl Harbor attack.

It takes great depth of patriotism to fight for a country whose official policy says, “you are inferior.” That patriotism continues today with the tens of thousands of gay and lesbian veterans who serve and served this country. Who do the same jobs and do them for less than their heterosexual brethren for they must serve in the shadows. They must hide pictures and letters from home. Why? Why do we cheat ourselves of their talents? Why must we legislate, persecute and discriminate against people whose only desire is to live their lives and seek happiness as they see fit, just like anyone else?

Because of a narrow view of ancient texts? Do we not have religious freedom in this land? Is the administration of the government and the military not a civil affair? Yet we discriminate because of a narrow religious point of view? I can join the military as a Satan worshiper and be yet banned because of my choice of boyfriend or girlfriend? It is as insane as it is despicable. It is blatant, cold-hearted prejudice, no different than laws against interracial marriage. How dare we as a society attempt to limit our people's happiness and to only succeed in the process to trip ourselves up and to hurt people whose only crime is a desire to be treated like everyone else while they serve their country? Do we forget that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is the rock that we as a nation are founded on?

So as we honor our veterans, let's take a moment to remember the men and women who served in the true silent service. Who served not only under fear of death or of injury but also of discovery. Who feared their own leaders as much as the enemies and who served for the same reasons as everyone else. Just like the African-American or Japanese-American troops of a generation ago, they do it out of patriotism and love of country and the secret belief that one day things will change.

Things will change, mega-church Christian Americans; the change will come, conservatives, because just like Galileo they have truth on their side. The walls of ignorance and bigotry always fall as much from their own rot as pressure from the other side. Gays and lesbians serve and have served with honor and distinction and it's time that they be treated with the same rights that all other Americans are. Punitive legislative measures will be viewed by future generations with the same disdain that we view Lester Maddox and George Wallace today. These men and women serve us, not as gay Americans, but as Americans who are gay.