Like many (most?) people my thinking on this has evolved. I was in the US Navy for 25 years and for all of those years being gay was a crime. It was outside the culture and grounds for immediate dismissal. During the last few years of my career Don't Ask, Don't Tell came to be the rule. But it always seemed like sort of a bullshit rule to most people I knew. I mean, either ban it or not. But don't keep people in limbo. And then after leaving the Navy, I didn't think too much about it until Proposition 8 came along. I sort of mindlessly agreed that marriage should be defined as being between a man and a woman. So what that meant was that marriage would be defined by the majority of the people. But then one day it dawned on me that I had voted to take a right away from someone just because of their sexuality. And that didn't seem right. Ultimately Proposition 8 was overturned. And the tidal wave of courts striking down laws banning gay marriage which resulted in many, many States allowing it has been perhaps the most rapid and sweeping social change in my lifetime. And the sun still comes up in the East in the morning. I think we're finally approaching the better alternative to Don't Ask, Don't Tell. That would be...Don't Care.
