Living Out Loud with Darian

On Sunday night 60 Minutes took a closer look into the military's discriminatory Don't Ask Don't Tell policy by interviewing openly gay men who once served in many different capacities in the armed services. The most revealing interview came from Darrin Menzella, a medic who is currently serving in Kuwait.Darrin did not receive permission to participate in the interview and will most likely be dishonorably discharged in the upcoming weeks, but what he described as explicit honesty about his sexual orientation reveals that many people in the military could care less about a soldiers orientation and more about their commitment to serve their country.

After providing "proof" that he was gay through pictures of he and his boyfriend along with a video of the couple kissing passionately on a road trip to his superior, Darrin says he was told to get back to work and there was no evidence of homosexuality. Huh? That's exactly what happened.

Since DADT was signed into law during the Clinton administration over 12,000 skilled and highly qualified gay and lesbian soldiers have been discharged under this policy, but the numbers have decreased dramatically since 2001. So is the military finally realizing that a person's sexual orientation doesn't hinder their performance and is turning a blind eye to openly gay soldiers? All of the evidence certainly points towards yes.

But of course there's the conservative side to the argument and U.S. Army Maj. Daniel Davis appeared on the show out of uniform to emphasize that DADT is necessary to achieve unit cohesion and openly gay service members would disrupt that effort.

"Our purpose in the military is not social engineering," he argued. "It's about fighting and winning the nation's wars." He later went on to stress that it would be a violation of the conservative values that the overwhelmingly majority of the men and women serving adhere to, calling gays and lesbians repugnant.


For most of this news presentation I couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculous accusations from the right about the potential downfall of the military for allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly. I can't understand why heterosexuals don't think we're capable of separating our professional and private lives. If I'm in the trenches and my life is in danger the last thing that would be on my mind is hooking up with the guy next to me. But then again I would never sign up for this job(like they would have me...lol).

I highly recommend that you watch the video here and of course leave your thoughts in the comment section.