60 Minutes / Gays in the Military

I was flipping through the channels and watched a minute or so of 60 Minutes. They were doing a story on gays in the military. Two things:

1) I guess many gays refer to the younger generation as the Will & Grace generation. As in, they grew up watching gays in the media, as on Will & Grace, and so gays aren't frightening or foriegn to them. I can live with that.

2) One of the arguements Lesly Stahl tried to use was that the British military began allowing gays to serve openly in the 90's, and it hadn't affected their military effectiveness. Excuse me? The current British military couldn't even fight the Falklands Islands War today if it had to. It certainly couldn't defend their sea lanes or the British Isles from attack. Not too long ago we had the sad spectacle of British sailors wetting their pants instead of resisting the Iranians in the Gulf. Now I'm not trying to blame this on gays in the military, (the blame lies squarely with the Labor Party and it's neglect and even abuse of military budgets) but to argue that the British military is as effective today as it was in the 1980's is patently absurd.

That being said, I really have no beef with homosexuals. I do thing homosexuality is deviant, and should not be promoted as a healthy lifestyle, but as the Christians would say: hate the sin, love the sinner. I have friends, colleagues and family who are gay, and it honestly has no effect on my relationships with them. In fact some of them were apprehensive, given my personal politics, and how open I am about them. They expected me to get all Rev. Phelps with them. I've had to actually explain to them that I don't have to liker everything about a person to like them as a person, and that I'm sure there are things about me that other people don't like.

I don't think it is a good thing to have gays serve openly in the military, but I am open to the idea, as they young men on 60 Minutes suggested tonight, that times and mores are changing and that it won't cause problems with the current generation.