I Beg Your Pardon, Mr. Marzullo

On Friday afternoon, Greg Marzullo, the Washington Blade Features Editor, posted a piece on the Blade’s blog about our 12,000 Flags for 12,000 Patriots event, at which 28 new generals and admirals came forward at once to call for repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” While Marzullo started out praising us veterans, particularly Eric Alva, he went on to… well, I’d better let you read for yourself. Here are a few selected excerpts that succinctly summarize the point of his article (which you can find for yourself at http://www.washblade.com/blog/index.cfm?blog_id=15484):

“…I couldn't help but shake my head in utter bewilderment at this entire memorial. Twelve thousand people had dedicated a good portion of their lives to a homophobic institution that not only asked them to risk life and limb, but also asked them to perpetuate cycles of violence in an already violent world.”

“When I looked at all those stars-and-stripes planted in the ground, I wondered, ‘What if all these people had been working for world peace instead? What if every one of these unfairly discharged queer persons was planting gardens, feeding the homeless and saving vanishing habitats?’”

“This is where queer people really needed to be — putting their efforts into changing the culture of tomorrow, not the destruction of current cultures at the hands of patriarchal, autocratic monsters.”

So I couldn’t help but once again wonder, why is it that an anti-military minority within the gay community cannot understand that there are gays and lesbians who actually like the military, who have an affinity for the lifestyle, who can contribute to it and benefit from what it offers, who take pride in service to the nation, and, most importantly, who recognize the timelessness and importance of the institution of the U.S. military? Why can that minority not separate their opinions about contemporary events from the undisputed need for a strong and capable military?

The U.S. military is a glorious institution, a necessary institution, and one that provides many opportunities for millions of Americans. Since when has “planting gardens” provided a G.I. Bill benefit - a benefit that enabled me and millions of others to get a college education? Does this minority not remember that the U.S. military is the institution that helped liberate Europe from the Nazi empire, helped liberate Asia from the Japanese war machine, and helped end the Holocaust? I don’t think Hitler was in the process of being persuaded by the peace movement, much less an army of gardeners.

To quote someone whose name I cannot remember at this specific moment, we should always have “old men talk more before we send young men to die,” but to demean the U.S. military and those who serve because you disagree with an ephemeral political issue is reckless and disrespectful at best, in my humble opinion.

You know, this is the second encounter I’ve had with Mr. Marzullo. He actually wrote the very first article I ever appeared in with regards to the DADT issue. In December of 2005 he wrote up a piece for the Washington Blade on the upcoming Call To Duty Tour I had organized for the following spring, and the very first line of that article mistakenly reported that I had been dishonorably discharged from the Army. The error was quickly corrected in the online version of the article at least (my discharge was fully honorable, for the record!), but being the very first piece of media I had ever done for DADT, I was quite distraught over the mistake, needless to say. That erroneous assumption on Marzullo’s part seems to have only been the beginning of his lack of understanding of the world of the U.S. military, of why Americans answer its call to duty, and of the one million gays and lesbian veterans in this country who have recognized the nobility of service.