Katherine Kersten's Korner

Kersten's kolumn today is about the University of Minnesota's Law School, and their involvement with the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR). FAIR objects to what's known as the Solomon Amendment, which requires schools that receive federal funding, including law schools, to open their campuses to military recruiting. The objection is due to the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy regarding homosexuals. As you can probably guess, Kersten isn't too impressed with FAIR or the law school.

While I do think it is a bit shallow of the school to join FAIR but not join the lawsuit that FAIR has brought against the government, there is absolutely nothing wrong with how the law school has acted. This may be hard to understand for Kersten and others who think like her, but a lot of people have a problem with anybody discriminating against gays, because, well, they are people too. So there is no difference here than if the military refused to admit Jews, or Blacks, or women. If the military had these kinds of policies, most people would agree that there's a problem, and even Kersten might agree that the law school was right to not allow recruiters on campus. But when it comes to homosexuals, it's apparently different: as Ford is proving, discrimination against the GLBT community is still allowed.

So no, Kersten, if the U law school doesn't want military recruiters on campus, they aren't demeaning the institution of the military. The military is doing a pretty good job of demeaning itself with its stupid discrimination.