Cornyn Opposes Changes to Military Recruitment
Gay Texans hopeful they might soon be able to serve in the U.S. military without concealing their sexual orientation won’t find any support from their junior U.S. senator. John Cornyn, a former member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, last week reaffirmed his belief that allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the U.S. military could hinder recruitment efforts at a time the country is fighting a two-front war.
“There has been a lot of stresses and strains, particularly on the Army but also in the Marine Corps,” he told reporters on a conference ...
Comments (4)
David
He's merely following the Republican marching orders of continued bigotry and discrimination. Hurray!
JJ Baskin
"Could hinder" is his statement, but there isn't any evidence to back that up.
If removing DADT hinders recruitment, it must do so at a dramatically higher rate that the current attrition levels of DADT violators. I understand we've lost a lot of great translators because of this law, and I doubt that the removal of DADT will deter more people than have been removed.
ClarkWalker
The formatting of this blog headline may be misleading. It appears currently as TribBlog: Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Change which led me to think perhaps it was the editorial stance of the TxTrib, or the political opinion of the "blogger" Julian Aguilar.
Upon further examination, I can see the item concerns comments made by a member of the Senate from Texas, and his, not necessarily his constituents, opinion. (One supposes "Aging Senator hangs onto Intolerant Mindset" was too long for the space provided.)
It also seems to be more of a news item than a blog post, but again that is subject to the editor's discretion. My own opinion regrading declining recruitment numbers might reflect more on the issue of losing two wars, rather than what consenting adults do behind closed doors.
jpwatts
When you start with the premise that gay Americans who want to serve are, in fact, people, it's easy to mistake Cornyn's comments as being in favor of repeal:
"I just don’t think that it’s helpful to do anything that might discourage more people from enlisting or reenlisting. And so, I think, this is the sort of thing that causes uncertainty, which may affect our ability to recruit and retain volunteers."