Consequences of ignorance
Yesterday, I read a frustrating piece in which Michael Falvey recycled a number of debunked arguments against allowing gays to serve in the military ("Consequences of repealing Don't ask, Don't tell," Feb. 15). He talks about the 60 percent of infantrymen who, in their infinite wisdom, have been able to predict how their units would function were gay people allowed to serve with honor and integrity in the military. I know that I don't need to throw out numbers from the report, as Mr. Falvey has certainly already read it, but he seems to have missed some key statistics: 70 percent of the overall military think that gay service members serving openly would have little to no effect on unit cohesion, and of the 69 percent of service members who responded that they believed they had served with someone who was gay, 92 percent said that their unit's ability to work together was either very good, good or neutral. There's also the fact that countries such as Israel, England, Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada and at least 20 others already allow gays to serve openly in the military. Unit cohesion has not been adversely affected in their militaries.
