A few months ago, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in a hearing about “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the law requiring that homosexual service members keep their sexuality a secret and that other service members refrain from asking them about it.

They said it was unfair and ought to be repealed. During the hearing, Mullen told the committee, “No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens … allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do.” Many of the lawmakers present responded with outrage. As a former enlisted member of the United States Army, I feel it is time to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” and allow homosexual members of the military to serve openly.

One of the primary arguments raised by Congressmen at the hearing was that repealing the law would undermine the military’s operational capabilities. They claimed that allowing homosexuals to serve openly would weaken unit cohesion, presumably because other soldiers, sailors, etc. would be uncomfortable serving with an openly gay person. This line of reasoning is not just discriminatory to homosexuals — it’s incredibly presumptuous. It presupposes that straight soldiers would not be professional enough to work alongside gay soldiers. The military is already a very ethnically, culturally and religiously diverse institution, and it handles this diversity very professionally. Also, a study of countries that allow homosexuals to serve openly concluded that doing so in no way affected their operational capacity.

It should be noted that the very same argument being raised against allowing homosexuals to serve openly is the same argument that was raised against desegregating the military. People insisted allowing African-Americans and Caucasians to serve alongside one another would weaken the military’s combat effectiveness. This argument turned out to be completely bogus, and I suspect the argument against repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” is equally as such.

Another argument that has been raised against repealing the law is that it would weaken the military’s image. This argument assumes the military exists to project some kind of image, and homosexuals would be unable to project this image – presumably of “toughness.”

The military exists to perform a specific function (national defense), and there are simply no grounds for believing homosexuals would be unable to perform this duty.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell” is not only discriminatory, but it also has a negative impact on the military as a whole. Between 1994 and 2009, roughly 13,000 service members were discharged for being homosexual, 800 of whom were described as having jobs that were critical to the needs of the military. Since 9/11, roughly 60 Arabic translators were discharged because of their sexual orientation, this at a time when the military is suffering from a shortage of translators specializing in Arabic. This shortage is in large part a result of this policy.

When I was in the Army, I had a friend who was gay and forced to keep his sexuality a secret from almost everyone in his unit. Many of the people who worked directly with him knew he was gay and were completely OK with it. He had a boyfriend who was in the Marine Corp. — both have served in Iraq. The assumption that the military would be somehow weakened by allowing homosexuals to serve openly is a slap in the face to them and to every other gay and lesbian soldier who has ever served our country.