Both leading Republican candidates for president, George W. Bush and John McCain support the current policy. Those who agree with the Democratic candidates treat the whole affair as merely the latest episode in a struggle for equal civil rights. Indeed, proponents of permitting homosexuals to serve openly in the military invoke President Truman's executive order after World War II that integrated the US military. Although it is popular to equate opposition to permitting homosexuals to serve openly in the military today with opposition to racial integration of the services five decades ago, the similarities between the two cases are superficial. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Colin Powell, who no doubt knows something about racial discrimination, made the proper distinction in a reply to former Rep. Pat Schroeder when she argued that point.
Skin color is a benign non-behavioral characteristic.
Sexual orientation is perhaps the most profound of human behavioral characteristics. Comparison of the two is a convenient but invalid argument. Congress agreed and subsequently reaffirmed the long-standing exclusion of open homosexuals from military service. This is an important fact that the Democratic candidates either don't understand or are ignoring for partisan political purposes. The law, passed in 1993 by a veto-proof margin in a Democratic controlled Congress, codified regulations in effect before President Clinton's inauguration.