Unfriendly Fire
How the gay ban undermines the military and weakens America

Cross-posted on Huffington Post

Just as Republicans are beginning to realize that gay marriage may not remain a winning wedge issue forever, conservative lawmakers are reportedly setting out to use gays in the military to divide President Obama and the military. The strategy is to ask the Defense Secretary or Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about gay troops in upcoming hearings on the Defense budget, before the president has reached out to ensure that his team members are all on the same page.

If military leaders don’t (more…)

The interchange between me and uniformed personnel who oppose openly gay service has been, I think, instructive for all. Some are clearly not interested in having a productive debate, but others just as clearly are. So this post contains another reply to someone I hope will allow me to call him my new friend, “USMC,” whose previous comment to me can be see here. In wishing him “courage” in his orientation toward openly gay troops, he felt I was calling him a coward. My reply: (more…)

Here are some of my thoughts in response to the spirited comments prompted by my last blog post, which was itself a response to some of the venom that poured fourth after my recent cnn.com op-ed. Some in this debate were clearly not interested in a productive dialogue, but many–even those I disagree with–seem open to genuine debate, which I appreciate. This is a response to them, especially “USMC” and “J Haplin.” (In a previous comment thread, we debated the role of civilian academics in contributing to the debate on whether to lift the gay ban. The upshot for me was (more…)

Within hours of posting a commentary today on cnn.com, I got the following email:

I’d rather serve with an ex-felon than some limp-wristed faggot looking at my ass in the shower. (more…)

Yesterday, a mystery about my book began to resolve itself. Sort of. About a week ago, I noticed that my sales rank on Amazon was no longer appearing on the order page for “Unfriendly Fire.” I assumed it was a glitch and would be restored. A few other strange changes had also occurred, including that the book is now $2 more expensive (huge demand driving the price up?) and that (more…)

Nathaniel appeared on LOGO on April 3rd. To see the video, click here.

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“Unfriendly Fire” got a big write-up by the esteemed columnist, Anna Quindlen, in this week’s Newsweek. Read it here.

I appeared on a one-hour NPR call-in show in San Francisco this week, “The Forum.” Listen to the radio show here. You never know who is going to call in on these shows, and just because it’s San Francisco doesn’t mean they’re going to be homo-loving liberals. Sure enough,

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