Don't Ask: Stouffer Tells Us Why He's Afraid Of Gays In The Military

Sen. Bill Stouffer was on KMBC last night to share his enlightened opinions about gays in the military and prospective changes to the country's misguided "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy.  As Michael Mahoney reports, Stouffer doesn't want Rep. Ike Skelton to hold DADT hearings, and thinks that gays in the military are, well, icky and unpatriotic.

"When you’re in a war situation, you need to know that you can depend upon the person beside you. And if the lover–and you’re there and you got two lovers next to you, they’re going to take care of each other before  they-".  Stouffer stopped his thought, but then added, "it’s just that suspicion."

Seriously?

Stouffer also said that "now is not the time" to change the DADT policy because "we're in the middle of the war." Actually, our two ongoing wars are two of the best reasons to change the policy.  The military has discharged almost 800 mission-critical troops and at least 59 Arabic and nine Farsi linguists under DADT in the last five years. More than 13,500 service members have been fired under the law since 1994. 

In fact, the Urban Institute estimates that there are at least 65,000 gay Americans serving on active duty and one million gay veterans in the United States, and 75% of Americans support gays serving openly. 73% of military personnel are comfortable with lesbians and gays, and about 25% of troops who served in Iraq or Afghanistan know a member of their unit who is gay.

Stouffer is way out of touch and way out of line here.

Image credit: KRCG