Gays, in the military?

I missed this article in the NY Times last week, but I'd like to take this opportunity to address/make fun of it.

Here's a little excerpt for those of you who still have not registered with the Times (go to bugmenot.com, they have usernames and passwords for just about every free site you can think of).:

The office of the general counsel at the Pentagon has proposed decriminalizing consensual sodomy among adults, a change to its 55-year-old policy on sodomy that would bring the military legal code more in line with laws that govern civilians, according to a memorandum sent to Congress.


Under Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, it is a crime to engage in "unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex," even with mutual consent.

The changes proposed by the Pentagon's lawyers would narrow the definition to prohibit acts of sodomy with a person under age 16 or acts "committed by force." Their memorandum says this would "conform more closely to other federal laws and regulations."

Recent rulings by the Supreme Court and the United States Court of Criminal Appeals for the Armed Forces have raised questions about the constitutionality of the military's ban on consensual sodomy.

While the change would not alter the military's policy against gay men and lesbians in uniform, advocates for gay rights said that recent court decisions and the proposed changes to the military code could have broader implications for gay men and lesbians in the armed forces.

"Pentagon leaders can no longer justify banning gays because of private, consensual conduct if the military sodomy statute is repealed," said Steve Ralls, a spokesman for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a gay rights group.

If you ask me, the whole thing is a backhanded set-up by the Army. They know that they need more soldiers, and they lose a number of damn good ones to this little "don't ask, don't tell" policy each year. By changing one law under the pretense of updating to the common standard in our society at large, they know that they are laying the groundwork for any semi-intelligent lawyer to use the law to overturn the Army's ban on gays in general. Therefore, they can get more soldiers without pissing off the Christian right because they can just shrug and point to those hated "active" judges as the real culprits. It's a smart move, I'll give them that.