Maybe I spent too long in Germany, but I have always believed that decisions should be made for the benefit of the majority at the expense of the minority.
Is someone singing 'Tomorrow belongs to me!' in the background?
Much as I sensed the glint in your eye, I’m sorry to disappoint you Maple.
Ah well, perhaps after another few pints?
I'm quite old so indulge me for a moment,
When 'they' armed the girls we thought the sky would fall in - it didn't
When 'they' detached the girls to the less glamorous/more hazardous places we thought the of 'work hard - play hard' camaraderie would disappear under a cloud of pink, tears and cuddly toys - all that happened was a softening of the macho rugby-club atmosphere - which frankly gave my liver a rest
Then the big one, when it was OK to be gay - well, we really thought the world was coming to an end! Conveniently ignoring the facts that the Spartans had done OK as a military formation and that there had been homosexuals and bi-sexuals serving for years – many of us (myself included) came up with reasons why it would never work – based on stereotypes – you’ll get some idea when I say that I thought John Innman and Quintin Crisp were the standard male ‘poofs’ and that all ‘homos’ were like that.
Lesbians? All diesel dykes with man hating agendas.
Turns out we were talking crap – after the initial fanfare and a few closet doors creaking open life went on as ‘normal’. I even managed to ditch most of my prejudices actually talking to friends who turned out to be gay – or at least relatively cheerful. Still the same people, haven’t sprouted two heads. See the person not the label (see, I was awake during ‘Equality and Diversity’)
Moral of the story? What is ‘normal’ and acceptable in society is constantly changing (unmarried mothers .co-habitation, not covering the legs on the mess piano etc). The Armed Forces either move with the times to reflect society or becomes frozen in some Victorian moral timewarp like a fly in amber (cliché alert) if it chooses to do that it stagnates and fails to attract recruits of the right calibre and takes a kicking next time it's fighting Johnny foreigner