It’s the eve of my first book tour, and I’m excited to blog as I go. I’ll intersperse news on the issue and book with personal reflections on my travels.
Fresh from my fabulous NYC launch party, I left Brooklyn yesterday to stop over at the old Philly homestead and put in some face time with my family–it was the world premiere of my cousin’s movie, “America,” (more…)
R.O.T.C. Post II
Earlier this week I wrote about apologists for anti-gay military discrimination. These are folks who lay the blame for the feud between elite universities and the military at the feet of academia, who they say are out of touch with real America in protesting the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy by banning military recruiters from campus. (more…)
Apologists for discrimination are at it again. Kenneth Harbaugh, a former Navy pilot, occasional professor at Yale and director of the Center for Citizen Leadership, has written an op-ed in the New York Times calling it a “disgrace” that Yale students don’t notice the absence of military uniforms on campus.
There is big news today on the gays in the military front: the Palm Center commissioned the first ever statistical study of whether the presence of known gays in a unit has any impact on unit cohesion and the results are in: “The data indicated no associations between knowing a lesbian or gay unit member and ratings of perceived unit cohesion or readiness. Instead, findings pointed to the importance of leadership and instrumental quality in shaping perceptions of unit cohesion and readiness.”
When I tell people I write about gays in the military, they often wonder why. Why does the issue matter, to me—a skinny gay guy from a Quaker school—and to others? Why is it important to study and discuss the question of whether gays, lesbians and bisexuals should be able to serve their country in uniform without concealing their true identity?
Buy yourself a book and have OUTWrite Books send a second copy to Congress for just 50% more
