Friday, September 21, 2012

Tony Perkins Unconvinced by DADT Study

The study to which Perkins (president of the so-called Family Research Council) is responding has stated that there have been no major negative consequences (recruitment, retention, sexual harassment, etc.) as a result of the the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. Perkins, however, had this to say (from Think Progress):

In the last few days, I’ve fielded plenty of calls from reporters asking, “Where’s all the fallout that FRC predicted?” And I’ll tell you what I told them. It’s impossible to gauge the full effect of sexualizing the military in one year. But make no mistake–the repercussions have begun. We’ve witnessed it in the decline of religious freedom, the censoring of chaplains, the embrace of same-sex “marriage,” and the special treatment for homosexual soldiers. [...]
Has America’s military completely collapsed in the first year after repeal? Of course not–our service members are too professional to let that to happen. But these challenges are only a non-story because the media won’t tell the story. We need only look at no-fault divorce in the 1970s to recognize that radical shifts in public policy take decades to fully manifest. No one can honestly deny the impact that no-fault divorce has had on children and the institution of the family. Within 20 years of the introduction of no-fault divorce, we saw the acceleration of cohabitation, single-parent homes, and unintended pregnancies. By the time Americans recognized their mistake, it was too late. Let’s hope the same isn’t true for our brave men and women in uniform.

Many other militaries throughout the world, including many of our closest allies beside whom our own soldiers have fought, also allow their gay/lesbian soldiers to serve openly and have done so far longer than the United States. These militaries have not fallen into sexual anarchy, and there is no reason to believe ours will either, that is, unless you ignore the facts (which is precisely what Tony Perkins does regularly).

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