We ask our soldiers to die for our freedom.  Now, as if that sacrifice isn't enough, we ask them to deny who they are.  The military brass claims that open homosexuality in the ranks will hurt morale and officers will resign in protest.  They give our men and women in uniform too little credit.  They're soldiers, not bigots.

Generals once used these same, tired arguments to segregate African-American troops.  Brave men like the Buffalo Soldiers and Tuskegee Airmen proved them wrong.  They answered the call when the country needed them, and showed that things like race and sex don't matter in war.  On the battlefield, we're not gay or straight, black, yellow or white.  We're Americans, plain and simple. 

The race issue also debunks the argument that the military isn't the place for social change.  Since the Revolutionary War, people from different backgrounds have fought side by side.  They came to respect one another in the process, and bigotries quickly fell away.

Today, there are soldiers willing to march toward this new wave of integration.  Michael Dugan, who was Air Force Chief of Staff until 1990, told the Los Angeles Times he sees no problem with lifting the ban on gay soldiers.  He asks only that they "maintain discipline." 

Of course, discipline shouldn't be a problem for gays and lesbians in uniform.  They're already exercising extreme discipline by keeping their sexuality sealed in their footlockers.

In the final analysis, "don't ask / don't tell" is just as cruel and ridiculous as segregation.  We should let gays in the military express themselves openly, and show the world that the words "all men are created equal" apply to from sea to shining sea - even at the Pentagon.