When NPR went looking for someone to speak out in favor of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," thy could not have found a better representative of thinking on that side of the aisle than Duncan Hunter. Wait a sec... did I say thinking because that clearly not a problem that afflicts Congressman Hunter.
Duncan Hunter: the military is not civilian life. In think the folks that have been in the military... that have been in these very close situations with each other, there has to be a special bond there. But that bond is broken if you open up the military to transgenders to hermaphrodites to gays and lesbians.
NPR: Trangenders and hermaphrodites?
Duncan Hunter: Yeah, that's gonna be... uh, uh, uh... part of this whole thing. It's not just gays and lesbians. It's the whole gay lesbian transgender bisexual community. If you're going to let anybody in no matter what sexual preference that they have, that means the military's going to let everybody in.
I can't tell what's stranger: that Duncan Hunter is in a rash about hermaphrodites invading the US military, or that he thinks being a hermaphrodite is a sexual preference.
Of course, that's not the end of the brilliance he displays in this interview.
Duncan Hunter: It would make everyone uneasy. How you go into combat... the bathroom situation, the shower situation... the very mundane details, the fact that we have men and women separated, you know, because we don't want to have that sexual distraction. That exists for the homosexual aspect of things too.
NPR: But Congressman Hunter, wouldn't you agree there are gays and lesbians serving in the military right now? They just are not open about their orientation, so the problems that you raise would presumably be problems already. They're in the barracks already. They're in the showers.
Duncan Hunter: But they're not open about it. It's like you said. It's like if you go to work for NPR, you probably don't say on day one 'Hey I want everyone to know that I'm gay.' You probably don't care one way or the other as long as they get their particular job done. That's why don't ask don't tell works.
And I'm sure no one at NPR ever puts a picture of their spouse in their cubicle, or talks about their families. Honestly, getting Hunter to do the "Nay" negates the need for someone to do the "Aye."
Ultimately Rep. Hunter falls back on the demand that there be a poll of some portion of the military, which will prove that they don't like gays. Because, of course, that's exactly how civil rights works -- you only get them if the majority says you can have them.