An elderly military vet, who says he’s gay, asks the candidates why they support preventing homosexuals from serving in the military. Duncan Hunter‘s answer is truly odd. Gays shouldn’t serve, he says, because most young Americans in the military are “conservatives” who aren’t comfortable around LGBTQ people.

The questioner, who’s in the audience, stands up for himself. “With all due respect, I did not get an answer from the candidates. American men and women in the military are professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians. For 42 years I wore the uniform…I revealed I was a gay man after I retired. Today, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is destructive to our military policy. Everyday the Department of Defense discharges two people not because of misconduct, not because of unit cohesian, but simply because they happen to be gay. We’re talking about doctors, nurses, pilots, and the surgeons who sew somebody up.”

—Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.