Their remarks came in response to criticism of the Bush Administration's decision to hire Stephen E. Herbits, a civil rights activist, pioneer in gay and lesbian marketing, and a former assistant to both Vice President Cheney and Secretary Rumsfeld.
People are policy.
They are trying to have it both ways. David Segal, a military sociologist at the University of Maryland, who studies foreign militaries, said that both civilians and uniformed personnel can serve in the military without a problem. He went further, explaining that sexual orientation need not be an issue among combat troops either. Segal suggested that opposition to Herbits' appointment might be motivated by politics rather than military considerations. I presume that the people on the hill who are concerned with Rumsfeld having a gay advisor are the same ones as those who opposed Bush having an openly gay AIDS advisor.