AIUI, when Congress created the Uniform Code of Military Justice it took the decisions about what constituted proper behavior of military personnel away from the executive branch and put them into the hands of the legislative branch. (Or, it might more accurately be said that the legislative branch exercised it’s power of establishing law, for the executive branch to enact.) Now, what is and is not proper military behavior is codified by the UCMJ. I don’t know how DADT has become law, now, but originally it was simply an executive direction saying, “we’re not going to waste resources investigating these sorts of claims,” an executive end-run around the law. But the law making homosexual behavior verbotten was still on the books.
You do realize the woman in question must have been changing clothes in all-female locker rooms since middle school, right? I’m pretty sure she can manage to do it without her tongue hanging out. I always have. It doesn’t take any special effort, either – a locker room is not a particularly sexy environment, and there’s nothing in there I ain’t seen before. If you found yourself in a women’s locker room it might be a novel and exciting experience for YOU, but it is not for a lesbian.
*I guess you mean straight males have the right to privacy from people who might be sexually interested in them, because there’s no way for gay males to have similar privacy without being totally alone. Well, I guess one gay man and one gay woman is a “safe” combination, but add a third person of any sex or orientation to the mix and suddenly there’s a faint possibility that one of the people involved might be attracted to another! Oh no!
But aside from that, the plain fact is that outside the military homosexuals use school and gym locker rooms the same as heterosexuals. You (and any other man, or woman for that matter) have already unwittingly shared a locker room with homosexuals before, probably many times. You have never been free from the possibility that someone in the locker room might be checking you out. Somehow civilization carries on. And you know what else? Your “right to privacy” doesn’t include other people’s thoughts.
No, they weren’t. That was the Sacred band of Thebes.
Because Congress is the body charged with making law. It’s an error to believe that “commander-in-chief” means that the president can do anything he damn well pleases with regard to the military. All it means is that it is the president who gives direct instructions to the military. Such instructions must conform with law as set down by Congress.
Perhaps some people are worried that, should a male soldier sexually assault another male soldier, it would be investigated as thoroughly as male-on-female assults.
From CNN
DADT is an embarrassment and paints soldiers as unprofessional, infantile and savage.