The DoD briefs that it will not create a new data category for sexual orientation, that it will not require personnel to identify sexual preference.
Fine, but then where does that leave all the bean-counting for race, sex, religion, and “ethnicity”? Either data categories are necessary to ensure fairness or not.
Conversely, either a some behavior is protected just like immutable characteristics or not. I understand that the DoD is complying with requirements handed down from above, but this implementation seems to carve out a zone of preferential treatment for homosexuals.
If the argument is that the behavior connected with sexual orientation rises to the same level of protection as genuinely immutable characteristics such as sex and race, and constitutionally protected behavior such as religion, then all of the machinery of protection should be required to swing into action, yes?
After all, I believe the argument in favor of all this categorization of people is that “but for” actively tracking these factors, individuals will be harassed by their unenlightened co-workers, and discriminated against by their unenlightened management. So how long until the first homosexual’s lawsuit against the government for failing to identify, track and actively protect them?
