To the Editor:
The campus-wide debate on the issue of reinstating the Reserve Officers' Training Corps has changed my opinion of certain student groups and my opinions of some members of our student body. Specifically, I am appalled at how some gay-rights activists have publicly attacked the idea of reinstating ROTC because of the fact that there are definite, unfair restrictions on LGBTQ individuals in the military. I used to think better of the gay-rights activists in this school. I thought they stand for freedom of choice, and they believe in a world where the majority does not impose their viewpoints on the community in its entirety or restrict individual freedoms.
Yet, it seems that the gay-rights activists are trying to impose their viewpoints on individuals who want to take part in ROTC. The school has no right to prevent people who want to join ROTC from doing so just as much as our government has no right to prevent people who want to engage in gay marriage from doing so. The fact that some gay-rights activists in this school have failed to see this inconsistency has made me question their true agenda.
I agree that the military's different treatment of individuals based on sexual preference is wrong, but that is not the issue we are dealing with at Brown. Potential members of ROTC will be joining for reasons that do not include enhancing this injustice. The ROTC debate is not the arena to be protesting for equality for all sexual preferences.
I have no argument against either financial or administrative considerations that suggest that ROTC should not be reinstated. As a supporter of gay rights, but not a member of the gay community, and a supporter of reinstating ROTC, but not a prospective member, this decision does not affect me as much as it affects others. I am just disappointed that a community about equality for all has been advocating for limiting the personal freedoms of others within the Brown community, and I believe that any arguments about making a statement should be thrown out the window in the ROTC debate.
Scott Friedlander '12
