Now you can ask and they can tell

This morning, the U.S. Senate repealed the controversial military policy of "Don't ask, don't tell." The vote basically split on party lines (65-31) with eight Republicans joining fifty-five Democrats and two Independents to overturn the ban on openly gay citizens serving in the military.

Looking at this from a civil rights perspective, today's decision is a step in the right direction for anyone who advocates for equal rights in this country. While I don't believe in individuals getting special privileges just because they belong to a certain identity group, I highly support rectifying the existing inequalities in this society so we as Americans can truly say we live in the greatest country in the world (which we do).

This starts with allowing gays to openly serve in the military. No more old wives tales of gays being disruptive to "morale, good order and discipline." Clearly, if there's sexual assault going on in the military, its more likely to be between heterosexual male members and their female peers. To the panic-stricken Americans who think this decision will affect the military's competitive advantage, please get the images out of your head that Carson from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is going to be enlisting anytime soon. If anything, this decision benefits the already dedicated (gay) soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who have never had the peace of mind to feel fully comfortable with themselves in the very high pressure environments they currently serve. To that, sixty-five senators today made the right decision.

For those senators who did not see eye-to-eye with the movement to repeal (and by extension, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Michael Mullen who under oath voiced their support for the repeal) I at least give them their right to disagree. While there are two sides to every argument, the way ban supporters went about making their case did little more than injure the United States' reputation as a champion of equal rights and toleration. The dialogue that emerged from this debate was at times every much as backwards as the policy itself (go figure). If the ban supporters had legitimate arguments to back up their claims I would cut them a bit of slack. However, this was a sad display by the Republican party, who finally had the opportunity to put some of their antiquated social politics to rest. To Scott Brown, Richard Burr, Susan Collins, John Ensign, Mark Kirk, Lisa Murkowski, Olympia Snowe and George Voinovich, kudos for being on the "right" side of the argument this time. To the thirty-one Republicans who voted no, including a man I admire, John McCain, please come up with a better argument next time so you won't make yourselves look so bitter and intolerant.

It's bad enough we have snotty liberals like Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow telling us how they're right all the time. By voting no on the don't ask, don't tell repeal, Republicans just made the far left look a bit less conceited and much more mainstream. It just seems that the GOP can't find the center when it comes to social issues.