Disgraceful Silence of the Week

During Tuesday's Republican presidential candidate debate in New Hampshire, the moderator, CNN's Wolf Blitzer, posed the following question to the ten contenders: "Is there anyone here who believes gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the United States military? If you do, speak up now."

Did any of the ten candidates answer? Yep, you guessed it--not a single one. At the same time, any individuals opposed to homosexuals serving in the military never seem to mind when those same homosexuals, among other things, improve their health as physicians and nurses, protect their lives as firefighters and police officers and provide other services as chefs, pilots, bank tellers and store clerks. With that being said, I am pretty sure that there are currently numerous heterosexual members of the U.S. military who are openly prejudiced towards individuals of other races, origins and religions, including Muslims. However, those straight people are not required to leave the military. I am also pretty sure that there are numerous heterosexual men in the U.S. military who do not view women as equals or even feel women should be allowed to serve openly. Regardless of their level of sexism, those heterosexual men are not forced to leave the military. In fact, I am positive that there is also a portion of those heterosexual men who remain in the U.S. military with openly misogynistic views toward women. Therefore, the right wing would rather exclude homosexuals with a desire to serve their country but not remove heterosexuals with negative opinions towards fellow soldiers who are also mothers, daughters and sisters.