On some level, it’s profoundly sad that in the 2009 United States we’re still arguing about whether or not gays can serve in the military without it somehow making the entire structure collapse. But here we are, and at least we can take comfort in the notion that it’s the military itself that’s starting to force progress on the issue.

The article, which was first reported Wednesday by The Boston Globe, also says the law has been costly — about 12,500 gay men and lesbians have been discharged from the service as a result of “don’t ask, don’t tell” since it took effect in 1993 — and argues that it undermines the unit cohesion it has sought to protect.

“In an attempt to allow homosexual service members to serve quietly, a law was created that forces a compromise in integrity, conflicts with the American creed of ‘equality for all,’ places commanders in difficult moral dilemmas and is ultimately more damaging to the unit cohesion its stated purpose is to preserve,” Colonel Prakash writes.

The article says that in countries where bans on homosexuals’ serving openly in the military were lifted, including Australia, Canada and Britain, there was no “mass exodus” of heterosexual service members and no impact on military performance.

Of course there was no mass exodus.

This may come as a total shock to most, but our men and women in uniform do what they do because they want to serve and protect the United States. Even their potential homophobia won’t usurp their devotion to the country they call home. To be sure, a lot of them will be unhappy surrounded by openly gay members, but to think that they’ll up and quit the service is a pretty insulting statement.

To paraphrase George Carlin, maybe a lot of those guys are unhappy because it means the gay guys will treat them the way they’ve been treating the female service members all these years.