Читать книгу Hybrid - Ruth Colker - Страница 23

Like the State of New Hampshire, the federal government has distinguished between conduct and status so as not to sweep too broadly in limiting the rights of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people in the military.¹⁵ While the state of New Hampshire’s definitional story is relatively straightforward, the military’s is far from simple. The military has had a long-standing problem trying to define “homosexual” and has adjusted its definition many times in order to better achieve its intended social policies as well as to avoid constitutional difficulties. Its definition-making has been so unsuccessful and problematic that it has recently developed a definition that is radically more encompassing, and less bipolar, than prior definitions. The military currently excludes nearly all gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals from military service based on both conduct or status. It finally has realized that it cannot fully perpetuate the subordination of all nonheterosexuals unless it opens up its rigidly bipolar definition of sexual orientation.