Glad to see that this idiotic policy might finally get overturned. Professing to treat sexual orientation as a "private" matter, its clear intention was to keep gays and lesbians out of the military. The U.S. has lost dozens of its best Arabic translators due to the policy. It's not as though gays and lesbians are suddenly going to find the military an inviting place, though the step should lead to much better protections for those who are there. As a legal step, it's equivalent to the courts recognizing the falsity of colorblindness. Acknowledging that we all see race, courts can then to provide remedies in cases of racial discrimination. By the same token, you can't give gays and lesbians serving in the military legal protection until you openly acknowledge that it's okay to take note of their sexual orientation.
All the hysterical ranting from anti-gay activist Elaine Donnelly two weeks ago about how homosexuality creates problems for army units is probably the funniest thing we've seen occur on the floor of Congress since Ted Stevens. Anyway, it's anthropologically inaccurate to claim that same-sex love prevents teamwork: the practice of the Greek city-states was, in fact, to
require new male troops to bond sexually with older male leaders. I'm not saying that's a good idea either, but almost every other modernized country in the world allows gays and lesbians to serve, and none of these armies claim that "out" troops are any less impressive!
