Joseph Steffan, in Honor Bound: A Gay Naval Midshipman Fights to Serve His Country, argues convincingly that he and every gay man or woman has the right to serve his country in the military. There is no question that legally Steffan is correct in his argument. This reader wholeheartedly supports Steffan in his moral and legal fight to exercise that right. Any law---civilian or military---which discriminates against gays should be abolished, period. Steffan's personal commitment to that struggle wins this reader's total support. However, this piece will question the overall philosophy of the author on two counts. First, that philosophy is weak with contradictions between his plea for moral and humane treatment of gays by individuals and institutions, and the utterly immoral and inhumane nature of the profession he sought to pursue as a member of the military. That is, the military exists to kill, to maim, to destroy human beings and property. The author, who longs to be a part of that murderous profession, ignores its destructive essence and focuses instead on the "honor" of Annapolis and service in the military. Second, he argues that he sought at Annapolis and in the military to develop his own individual talents, when in fact the military is designed to first and foremost strip individuals of their individuality and create killing machines who obey orders without question.
Steffan is conveniently naive in minimizing the essence of the career he seeks in the military. In fact, he scarcely deals with the murder, if not mass murder, upon which the military is built. This fact is overwhelmingly significant to Steffan's case due to the fact that his book was written to awaken people to legal and personal homophobia in the military and anywhere it exists. Steffan's book is profoundly effective precisely because he is shown to be such a good man, such a capable and caring man. The issue of gays in the military is highly emotional, based...