I'd heard before that some Arabic language specialists were being fired from the military for being gay. What had somehow slipped my attention was that we had lost 55 of them this way. In fact, the gay ban has been quite destructive to our military: "Since 1993, more than 11,000 service members have been dismissed under the gay ban, according to the Department of Defense." This isn't just a nondiscrimination issue -- it's a national security issue. I'm happy to see that John Edwards has pitched it that way: "As the recent discharge of Arabic language specialists demonstrates, the current policy does not serve our national interests and should bechanged."
Fortunately, American voters have come around on this issue. According to the most recent Pew Poll, Americans support allowing gays to serve openly in the military by a 60-32 margin.
