You have to give credit to Laurie Higgins and the Illinois Family Institute for coming up with a truly unique rationale for opposing the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, arguing that the fact that gays enlisted and served in the military prior to the repeal proves that they cannot be trusted to obey orders … because they engaged in “deliberate deception” by joining the military in the first place:
Supporters of the repeal make the case that since what distinguishes soldiers is their unquestioning commitment to obey orders, this radical change in military policy will have no effect on troop morale or military readiness. Ironically, they simultaneously offer demagogic accounts of homosexual soldiers who have concealed their homosexuality, which constitutes deliberate deception on the parts of soldiers who should never have enlisted in the military. Their primary act of enlisting constituted a violation of Article 125 of the Military Code of Justice and U.S. Code – Section 654 that strictly prohibits those who engage in homosexual acts or those who state that they are homosexual from serving in the military.
Despite what supporters of the repeal claim, military prohibitions against homosexuals serving in the military no more encourage deceit, than do laws prohibiting stealing encourage deceit. To claim that laws that prohibit certain behaviors encourage deceit is another way of saying people are always going to break laws. In this twisted logic, all laws encourage deceit because those who don’t want to abide by them willfully engage in deceit in order to do what they want without incurring the consequences.
