Shhh...The Times they are a Changin'

By Spenser Hanson

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Black, white, gay, straight. There are a lot of different people in the world, all of which were created equally.

Despite the views of some people, one young local lesbian woman has always wanted to join the military. She prefers not to give her name because of privacy issues she has with her sexuality. She’s been afraid to pursue her goals because of primitive laws that prohibit openly non-heterosexual applicants from being accepted into armed services.

Over the past several weeks there has been uproar in congress about how constitutional the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT)” policy is in the military.

This policy is used to restrict recruitment officers in their respective branches of the United States military from asking the sexuality of applicants. It also forces a recruiter to disallow openly homosexual, lesbian, or bisexual applicants from becoming members of the service.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell keeps me in a flux. Should I stay open about who I am, or go back in the closet?” asked the prospective woman recruit.

Since December 21, 1993, the DADT policy has kept persons of specific sexualities “closeted,” yet is only now getting intense speculation from all sides of the spectrum. Virginia Phillips, federal judge for Riverside, California, ruled on September 9th, that the statute of DADT is unconstitutional, and could no longer be enforced.

This unexpected ruling ushered in praise by homosexuals. However, it also brought in a hurricane of criticism by conservative citizens across the country.

ROTC hopeful Mark Dasani has a very conservative view of this policy. “At times I feel that openly homosexual people can cause tension and possible issues with other soldiers.” said Dasani. “Conservative views are common throughout the military, and these openly gay people would become targets for other soldiers.”

The only problem that exists with the conservative bias in the military is that they aren’t the ones who make the legislation. In the past week President Barack Obama has met with liberal bloggers who were critical of the him, and gave them his plan on what to do with DADT.

The general idea of the presidents plan is to abolish this sort of discrimination from happening in any setting, but more immediately in the armed service sector. President Obama specifies that he does have a plan for correcting DADT, but it requires 2 out of 5 Log Cabin Republicans to be swayed to his vote.

However, Sean Bielat, a Massachusetts congressional candidate, has a firm conservative view on the DADT policy. “There’s no absolute right to serve. Men under the height of 5 feet, 2 inches can’t serve — I don’t see anybody protesting.” Bielat told the Boston Herald in reference to the protests seen by homosexuals in response to DADT.

This sudden movement, from Fort Collins all the way to Washington D.C., is no different from the civil rights movement of the ‘50s and ‘60s, or the campaign for women’s suffrage in the early 20th century. All of which argued for equal rights because it says in the Declaration of Independence, “...all men are created equal.”