Are LGBT Persons in the Military more deserving of Equality Rights?

While at home over the recent holidays, I sat down with a few others (and far too many chocolates!) to view the classic UK crime series, A Touch of Frost. The particular episode we watched focused on a murder inquiry at a British Army training barracks, and ended with one of the protagonists, a young male officer, being discharged because he was gay.

The plotline of the story somewhat dated the episode – gay and lesbian persons have been entitled to serve openly in the British Army since the landmark European Court of Human Rights Case, Smith and Grady v The United Kingdom. But I was still surprised by the reaction of our group, many of whom were unusually outraged by this fictional tale of injustice and woe.

As the group chatted afterwards, there was general agreement that there is some heightened level of unfairness where gay and lesbian persons are removed from the military. As many of the arguments surrounding “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” have been framed, a number of people noted that it seems particularly inappropriate to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation where somebody is engaged in activities for the community which may cost the person his or her life.

Listening at the back of the group, I obviously was in agreement that nobody should be removed from the army because they are gay or lesbian. But I was surprised by the way in which many of the comments seemed to be framed, and the consequences of these arguments if brought to their logical conclusion.

I asked myself: Why is it that so many people see gay persons in the military as particularly worthy of legal protection, and what does that say about the way that these people view LGBT equality more generally?

As has been previously noted in other blogs, there are now numerous challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which are winding their way through the Federal District and Appeals Courts. Added to their number in 2011 were a series of cases brought by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), challenging among other things the denial of spousal benefits for current and ex military employees.

The announcement of the SLDN lawsuits was (thankfully) given front page coverage on many of America’s leading print and online news outlets. Talking about the cases at the time, many people told me that they hoped these challenges would make it to the Supreme Court. As one lady put it, “It just seems like the perfect story…gay people in the Army have really earned this.”

There is no doubt that gay and lesbian persons should be afforded all rights (and obligations) which are currently enjoyed by heterosexual members of America’s armed forces. But in my opinion, the idea that we give LGBT military personal equal rights because they have earned it is deeply troubling and is a line of thought that should best be avoided. Gay and lesbian servicemen and women are not entitled to equality because they have earned it. They are entitled to equality because they are equal citizens of the United States, afforded the protections and rights enshrined in the Constitution. It would be a sad day if, in granting the SLDN plaintiffs the relief they seek, a court were to condition their rights on the fact that they had completed military service. Just as we would never expect women, racial minorities or religious groups to justify their own equality in this way, so too it should not be expected of LGBT individuals.