Yahoo Watch: Values Voters Summit

I was just listening to the Family Research Council's "Values Voters Summit" in the car on C-SPAN radio. The whole summit is, I suspect, one long experience of yahoodom. They just had a panel on "Don't Ask; Don't Tell" and why it is imperative - imperative! - that gays and lesbians who serve in the armed forces be made to lie about it under penalty of law, that this is the only thing that will protect the "unique culture" of the military, and protect our armed forces from immorality.

Of course, the arguments I heard were identical to those used to oppose the entrance of women into the military (and into the military academies) and, before that, to oppose the entrance of blacks into the military. My favorite objection, however, was Tony Perkins' contention that those militaries that allow gays to serve - he cited the UK and the Netherlands - don't use their armed forces for fighting, only for parades. Apart from gratuitously slighting the contribution of the armed forces of Great Britain to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Perkins might want to check with the policy of the Israeli military. Gays and lesbians, like all Israelis, must serve in the military and, last time I checked, there is no democracy whose armed forces have been called on to be more combat ready in the world.

Alas, the main value being celebrated at the summit appears to be bigotry. (And, as I pulled into the driveway, Gary Bauer was just begining his attack on Islam!)If you are in DC this weekend, keep your kids inside!