Do Other Countries Allow Gays to Serve Openly in the Military?

There are other countries in the world besides the United States who have dealt with the issue of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people serving in the military. Let's take a look at them.

Israel allowed LGBT to serve openly in 1993. The Israeli intelligence service has the highest number of LGBT. May explain why their intelligence service is better than ours.

Australia since 1992.

Canada since 1992.

British Navy since 1999. The British Army incrementally in the last 10 years.

Republic of China since 2002.

Denmark since 1981. This is not a surprise, is it?

France since 2000.

Germany since 2000.

Ireland since 1993. Yes, Catholic Ireland.

Netherlands since 1974, the first.

New Zealand since 1993.

Norway since 1979.

Alphabetically, the following countries also allow LGBT to serve openly: Albania, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Peru, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and of course, Uruguay.

India, the world's largest democracy decriminalized homosexuality in 2009. Ancient Indian culture was tolerant toward homosexuality - modern India, not so much.

Communist China has a policy of no approval, no disapproval, no promotion. 'Let's not talk about it and it's not a problem' seems to be the approach. A lot like 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'

That's great, the country the U.S. policy resembles most closely is Communist China. Wonderful.

What about North Korea, Iran and Libya? These countries are evil, right?

We don't know what the policy is in North Korea. Since the revolution in Iran in 1979 the government has been hostile to LGBT rights. Homosexuality is illegal in Libya.

May have missed some countries, but this quick survey shows that other countries have dealt with the same issues we have been wringing our hands over the past few years. We don't need to be xenophobic about this.

We can ask other countries for advice on how they have handled the issue and how it's working out for them.

This reminds me somewhat of the furor over Virginia Military Institute's refusal to admit women.

In 1996, VMI was forced by the Supreme Court to admit women. Virginia Tech allowed women in the Corps of Cadets in 1973 and fully integrated women into the Corps by 1979.

As a Hokie alum, it made me proud when the Virginia Tech Corps volunteered to help VMI integrate, to show them how it could be done and done well.

I'm still waiting for our government to come to its senses. I'd much rather have us be like Israel than like Libya. Like Canada instead of Iran. Someday, maybe.

In America, we should heed the words of noted conservative Barry Goldwater, Sr., who famously said "You don't need to be straight to shoot straight."