Presently, we have about 200,000 women serving on active duty in the U.S. military. Thus, about 12 percent of our military members are women. In 1996, two decades after our military academies at West Point, Annapolis and Colorado Springs opened their doors to women, VMI still shuts their doors to women. Women have participated in every armed conflict engaged in by the United States. Women proved that they can withstand the real-life stress of combat situations.
Women are active participants in military leadership.
Military women have died in combat and been taken as prisoners of war. The VMI litigation is about equal opportunity for qualified individuals. VMI is supported by the tax dollars of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Over half the citizens of Virginia are women, yet these women are not eligible to attend this state school because they lack the essential credential of a penis. VMI fears that persons without penises would destroy unit cohesion and esprit de corps, lower the prestige, change the methods educating the citizen soldier and, of course, break with tradition.