This, then, is the appropriate framework within which the issue of open homosexuality in the military should be addressed. It is not merely a binary question of upholding equality on the one hand or maintaining military effectiveness on the other.
Rather, does or should equality in America extend the same degree of moral recognition to gay and straight lifestyles? And even if it does, is the right to sexual self-determination so fundamental that a presumption is made in its favor even when no one is 100 percent sure what the long-term impact on national defense will be?
Surveying the policy landscape through such a scope might finally help us move beyond the Don't Ask, Don't Tell, (and now Don't Harass) muddle. With it in place, the new batch of military anti-harassment programs should have a better chance of operating at maximum success.
Boleslaw Z. Kabala is a first-year living in Matthews Hall.