[Vision2020] Actually Talking With Gay People; What a Concept

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (January 4, 2007) Lewiston Tribune with special thanks to Tom
Henderson -

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Actually talking with gay people; what a concept
By Tom Henderson

The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has changed his mind about
gays serving in the military after -- of all things -- talking with gay
soldiers. 

Not one of them pinched him in the tush or asked him to dance. Turns out
they're not the menace retired Gen. John Shal-ikashvili warned us about back
in 1993. 

Talking with people instead of about them. What a concept. 

Too bad Shalikashvili didn't try it 13 years ago when he said allowing
openly gay soldiers in the military would hurt troop morale and recruitment.


''These conversations (with gay soldiers) showed me just how much the
military has changed, and that gays and lesbians can be accepted by their
peers," Shalikashvili wrote in Tuesday's New York Times. 

The military hasn't changed that much -- except that the supply of soldiers
is down. And because of Iraq and Afghanistan, the demand is up. With
President Bush possibly sending more troops to Iraq, the military's
queasiness about homosexuality is increasingly impractical. 

When Shalikashvili chaired the Joint Chiefs, the Pentagon adopted its rule
of "don't ask, don't tell." Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., calls the policy
"very effective." 

It depends on how you define "effective." It's certainly been effective in
discriminating against people. Thousands of soldiers have been dismissed
under the policy over the past 13 years. 

Gays in the military was a controversial subject in the early '90s. Even
with Democrats in the majority, Congress may be skittish about revisiting
the debate. 

Even Shalikashvili, now a Washington state resident, is cautious on the
subject. Fighting the war in Iraq -- and healing the divisions the war has
created -- is more important, he said. 

''Fighting early in this Congress to lift the ban on openly gay service
members is not likely to add to that healing and it risks alienating people
whose support is needed to get this country on the right track," he wrote in
the Times. 

He may be right. However, when the time comes to revisit the debate over
gays in the military, all concerned would be wise to follow the general's
lead and actually talk to gay people. 

It's a conversation long overdue.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in
Albany, Georgia and St. Augustine, Florida, and many other campaigns of the
Civil Rights Movement.  Many of these courageous men and women were fighting
for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and
I salute their contributions."

- Coretta Scott King (March 30, 1998)