THE VOLOKH CONSPIRACY has a nice summary of the sane argument against my own law school's current suit against the Department of Defense over the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. I basically agree with Professor Volokh on this one. This issue came up once or twice last spring, when I was trying to enlist in the army (at which I failed, because - like my father before me - I was determined to be physically unfit for service). Yeah, the policy's both wrong and dumb. But it's not as if the army's primarily in the business of discriminating against gays; I seem to recall something about providing for the national defense in there.... These guys have a job that's both difficult and supremely important, and it seems to me we civilians ought to do what we can to help them, even if it sometimes means compromising our beliefs about what sort of hiring practices are or are not appropriate.