So apparently our military still has nothing better to do with it's time than to hold hearings on its members' sexuality. And apparently I have nothing better to do with my time than to rant about it on the internet.

An article in the Washington Post today describes an 18-year veteran who will likely not make it to the 20-year mark to receive his pension because some stupid civilian outed him to the Air Force. Being neither gay nor in the military, I'm not really sure why this bothers me quite the way it does, but it does.

It's been explained to me why our policy is the way it is. I get that the rate of homophobia among those predisposed to join the military is disproportionately high compared to the general population. I get that keeping those kinds of assholes happy is necessary for maintaining a functional military. What I don't get is how holding a formal investigation into an otherwise picture perfect soldier's private life and then devaluing his years of service can possibly be a means to that end. How is it possible that holding gay soldiers to the same standards as straight ones with respect to sexual harassment and appropriate behavior in the workplace doesn't satisfy everyone?

Do we not live in a country that claims to protect the rights of the minority? Isn't the military the physical force of that protection? Shouldn't we as citizens be enraged to find that they can't even enforce such protections amongst themselves?

Short of actually fixing the problem, I don't get why truncating our "don't ask, don't tell" policy to simply "don't ask" wouldn't go a long way toward improving an unjust system. Is there any reason that when confronted with the previously mentioned tattle tale civilian, the military couldn't simply stick it's fingers in its ears and shout "we can't hear you!"?

Can someone please explain this to me?