Marine Commandant wants separate housing for homosexual servicemembers

The same day Defense Secretary Gates announced changes to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” discharge process, the Marine Corps’ top uniformed officer stated he won’t force his troops to bunk with gays on base and would give them separate rooms if Congress votes to allow openly gay service.

“We want to continue [two-person rooms], but I would not ask our Marines to live with someone who is homosexual if we can possibly avoid it,” Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway told Military.com during an exclusive interview at the Pentagon. “And to me that means we have to build BEQs [bachelor enlisted quarters] and have single rooms.”

Marine Corps Commandant James Conway is a known opponent of a recent push by Democrats to repeal the 1993 law, known as “”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

According to Conway, an overwhelming majority of Marines seem concerned with what the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” might mean for them.

Interestingly enough, when women were first allowed to serve side-by-side with men in the service, similar arguments about a weaker force and specialized quarters were made. There was fear of the perception of the U.S. Armed Services as more and more career fields were opened to women. There were, and remain, concerns regarding everything from sexual harassment to uncontrolled sexual activity amongst servicemembers. In short, women were, and are currently, perceived as a threat to the military’s moral fiber as well.

However, in spite of these arguments and fears, here we are in the year 2010 with a racially, ethnically, and gender-diverse service, that although isn’t perfect by far, is nowhere near becoming the hell-hole of immorality our politicians would like to suggest.

Allowing homosexuals to serve openly only means one thing for heterosexual servicemembers — they will no longer be told the person in the photo on their co-worker’s desk is their “best friend.”