Yes, as some advocates have argued, the issue of gays in the military is about fairness and about courage – both individual and institutional. And it is certainly about prejudice. But facing and resolving this issue requires more than an examination of societal ignorance and fears, it requires the acknowledgement that our government – through the military -- is involved in a purposeful, systematic program to breed and nurture hatred.

Opponents of gays in the military often cite the fact that the military is “discriminatory by nature” in that it has always excluded certain types or classes of people, i.e. those with “flat feet”, and that it therefore has a need and a right to continue to refuse recruits with attributes it deems non-beneficial or inappropriate. I am surprised to find myself in agreement with this argument.

In order to have a viable military organization capable of “winning” a war, the people in that organization need to be able -- at a moment’s notice -- to unthinkingly, instinctively, unhesitatingly obey a command to kill another human being. To do this requires an ability to dehumanize the victim, to feel superior to the victim, and to hate the victim – all, of course, without knowing the victim. Military leaders need troops who can be counted on to have these abilities.

Traditionally, these troops were poorer versions of the white patriarchs-in-charge, but as social strictures eased, the Pentagon allowed non-white males the privilege to kill or be killed (in uniform) for their country. Today, these perennial victims of poverty -- and targets of racism, hate, and the American “justice” system -- provide the Pentagon with a dependable, expendable supply of cannon fodder. Also, since virtually all of the recruits are males, the Pentagon gets a never-ending supply of misogynists and homophobes – for, no matter how much oppression a man of color may face, he is taught alongside his white oppressor that to be a Real Man he must subordinate and oppress all women and homosexuals.

If women and homosexual men are allowed in combat units, who will be left to exclude? How will the soldiers establish their supremacy without a class of people subordinate to them? Less human than them? How will they define their manhood without a womanhood below them? In fairness we may ask, “Why do individual gays and women feel compelled to join such a hostile band.”? Those familiar with the “Patti Hearst (hostage) Syndrome” won’t ponder this question very long, but understanding the victims’ reasons ‘why’ is not the issue here – the issue is understanding the Pentagon’s reasons ‘why not’.

Despite gays’ and women’s proven ability to be as militaristic and inhumane as the next soldier, if they are allowed complete inclusion, the military hierarchy has legitimate reason to fear for the long-term stability of its regime. This fear has nothing to do with disrupting heterosexual soldiers’ routines or morale – it has to do with disrupting their ability to hate.

If American boys, who we condition to be soldiers from the time they can hold their first toy gun, decide as adults – whether out of necessity or neurosis – to apply that life-long training professionally, how can we ask them to suddenly unlearn 18 years of indoctrination? If they are forced to live and work side by side with the same people they have been taught to dehumanize, if they must entrust their lives to such people, if they begin to even care for some, if they start to doubt the inevitability of their own status and privilege as Heterosexual American Males, if they actually begin to think of homosexuals and their own mothers and sisters and every other person on the planet as REAL people – how can these soldiers be counted on to hate, to oppress, to kill? How will the military, how will the Patriarchy, how will the world as we know it survive?