McCain: Gay Troops Put Others "At Grave Risk"

John McCain, a senator from Arizona, is running for the Republican presidential nomination. It appears that a major part of his strategy is to court the extreme right-wing. He's already cozied up to one of the godfathers of the religious right, Jerry Falwell, and he's now taken a major swipe at the GLBT community.

As reported by The Advocate, McCain dropped a note to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an advocacy organization for GLBT soldiers. According to the report, Sen. McCain wrote in regards to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy:

"I believe polarization of personnel and breakdown of unit effectiveness is too high a price to pay for well-intentioned but misguided efforts to elevate the interests of a minority of homosexual service members above those of their units.

"Most importantly, the national security of the United States, not to mention the lives of our men and women in uniform, are put at grave risk by policies detrimental to the good order and discipline which so distinguish America's armed services."

Fortunately, there are more reasoned opinions on this issue:

In a March op-ed in The Washington Post, GOP former senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming wrote, "I believe it is critical that we review—and overturn—the ban on gay service members in the military. I voted for 'don't ask, don't tell.' But much has changed since 1993.... We need every able-bodied, smart patriot to help us win this war."

"Senator McCain's comments are out of step with the overwhelming majority of the American people, and out of touch with the best interests of our armed forces," said Sharra Greer, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's director of law and policy, in a written statement Thursday.

"Senator McCain's defense of this counterproductive law is disrespectful to the more than 65,000 lesbian and gay service members on duty today."

I don't honestly understand how any GLBT people or advocates could vote for a Republican president, but in case you're tempted by Senator McCain, I suggest you keep this in mind.

The entire letter McCain wrote to the SLDN is available here: