Media reports have singled out two people in particular for acting heroically during the shooting in Tuscon, intern Daniel Hernandez Jr., who helped keep Rep. Gabrielle Giffords alive before the paramedics arrived, and Patricia Maisch, the woman who grabbed an ammo clip out of suspect Jared Loughner's hands while two other people at the scene tackled him.
Andrew Sullivan notes that Hernandez would have been barred from military service had he tried to enlist, because he is openly gay. It's actually somewhat strange that so much of the discussion over DADT focused on whether or not gay service members could fit arbitrary notions of masculinity, when acting with courage in the face of imminent danger in violence has so little to do with qualities like physical strength than it does with mental discipline and fortitude. Few people, period, have what it takes to act decisively under those circumstances, and the heroism of Maisch and Hernandez should remind us of the folly of making assumptions about who possesses such qualities based on gender or sexual orientation.
