Soldiers in Iraq are packing up their rucksacks, turning in their Kevlar and helmets, cleaning their guns, and piling into C-130 aircraft to fly home. On the long flight home many of the soldiers will pass the time on the flight talking about all the things they are going to do when they get home. Some will get married, many will start a family, go back to school, lay on the beach. Soldiers will salivate talking about grilling a steak with corn on the cob and washing it down with an ice-cold beer. There will be as many “when I get back home plans” as there are soldiers.
Some of the soldiers will be returning to their childhood bedrooms at their parents’ house, and the high-school memorabilia will still be on the walls because these young soldiers went straight from high school to boot camp. The older reservists and National Guard will go back to their “regular jobs” as accountants, mechanics, waitresses, doctors, and stay-at home moms.
All of the soldiers both young and old will be reflecting on what they saw during their deployment in Iraq, including many of the soldiers with multi deployments in the seven and half year war.
They will be thinking about the 4, 416 soldiers that have died in Iraq. Maybe one of the dead was a bunkmate, or a brother. They will think about the 31,882 injured. They will think about their comrade that lost their leg, their arm and their face. They will think about the soldier that lost their eyesight, or hearing, or the many soldiers with traumatic brain injuries.
Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell (R) is no friend to the LGBT community. He is, however, related to it — and that points to an important truth about our society and our approach to LGBT rights.