A Gay Soldier Was Booed

Stephen Hill was a decorated captain in the US Army, where he he hadbeen a reservist . He is serving in combat in Iraq, a when he asked this question via YouTube at the GOP debate2012in Orlando, Florida. It was a big room full of Republican primary voters booing an American combat soldier who, as he was speaking, was in combat. The audience members who were booing were in Orlando. Soon, they’ll surely be in hell, though not soon enough. Not everyone was booing: there were people in the audience who heard Captain Hill say that when he was deployed to Iraq, he was worried that if his sexuality was discovered, they might not let him go, as opposed to most of us, who, if told we were being deployed to Iraq, would go Rambo faster than you could pull on a yellow taffeta picnic dress. I’m sure there were even some people in the building who stood up for Captain Hill, people who had the simple strength of character to turn to the fraction of a human in the seat next to them and say, “How many different kinds of disgusting do you have to be to boo a man who volunteered to fight and die for you?” I’m sure those people were there. I’m sure there were many of them. But unfortunately, none of them were on the stage. Not one of these would-be Commanders-in-Chief took a moment to stand with a line officer. They let him stand alone. Soldiers never do that. Leaders never do that. Witless bullies and hapless punks do it all the time. The only President on the stage that night was Stephen Hill.