#4: Shifting Military Attitudes

There are those who have said that Congress will not repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” until the military is ready for it.


I don’t buy that argument, because the majority should never dictate the civil rights of a minority.

Even so, that day is either here or is fast approaching.

In 1993, only 13% of enlisted personnel supported gays serving openly. Today, according to the Annenburg Foundation, a majority of junior enlisted personnel support gays serving openly.

In 1993, only a handful of senior officers supported gays serving openly, today many do. Take just these examples from 2006:

"This is a hollow policy that serves no useful purpose. We have outgrown it. Our military is better than is reflected in this policy." – Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, USA (Ret.) (pictured above)

"It is clear that national attitudes toward this issue have evolved considerably in the last decade. This has been led by a new generation of service members who take a more relaxed and tolerant view toward homosexuality." – Lieutenant General Daniel W. Christman, USA (Ret.), former Superintendent of West Point

"Would you rather have a felon than a gay soldier? I wouldn’t." - Capt. Scott Stanford, National Guard commander of a headquarters company who returned from Iraq in June

We are seeing change in attitudes in other contexts as well.

West Point this year awarded the Brig. Gen. Carroll E. Adams Award for the best senior thesis in the art, philosophy and literature major in the academy's English department to Alexander Roggio for a thesis critical of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell."

The students at the Uniform Services University, DOD’s medical school, elected Patrick High, who is openly gay, to represent graduate students at the school.

Changing attitudes in the armed forces is our #4 story of 2006.

- C. Dixon Osburn