by Eric Dondero

Finally, a senior officer is speaking up about the fundamental question as to why Gays in the Military is an unworkable idea: Discrimination against straight males and femals in uniform.

From Military.com (via Memeo):

The Marine Corps' top officer said March 25 that even if the ban on openly-serving gays in the services is lifted, he would draw the line at forcing heterosexual Marines to bunk with gays on base.

"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."

Conway's comments came the same day that Defense Secretary Robert Gates reprimanded the Army's Pacific commander for publicly exhorting servicemembers and civilians to write to Congress to oppose repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Army Lt. Gen. Benjamin Mixon made his views known in a letter published in Stars and Stripes on March 8.

Conway then gets right to the crux of the matter:

"In this case, I would want to reserve the right of a Marine that thinks he or she wouldn't want to [share a room with a homosexual]. And again that's the overwhelming … number of people that say that they wouldn't like to do so." Conway said the Corps billets two-to-a-room -- unique today among the services -- because it believes it's good for unit cohesion. But if a gay Marine sharing a room with a straight one has the opposite effect, the Corps will adopt the single-room standard of the other services.

Gays in the Military advocates cannot escape the practicality issue of berthing spaces and cohabitation. Simply put, if a gay male has a right to bunk with a straight guy, shouldn't that straight male have the same right to share berthing spaces with a straight female?

Conway is correct in this regard. This is not an issue of exclusion. He even trumps their card. If some reasonable accomadation is found for separate berthing spaces that will eliminate reverse discrimination, he might go along with it.

Conway, quite cleverly, has now put the advocates in an uncomfortable position of defending discrimination and predjudice against straights.