Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell? Just Swim!

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.  One heinous, insane policy, a policy that treats LGBT Americans as second-class citizens, and the official policy of the United States military and of military schools.   So, one would expect that West Point – the heart of future Pentagon leaders – would be front and center in perpetuating DADT.  And, largely, I am sure that it is. 

Except in its swimming pool.

You see, the head swimming coach at West Point - Lou Tharp - is gay.  Openly gay.  His bosses know it.  His athletes know it.  Everyone knows it.  And how has this panned out for him and the West Point swim team?  Well, under Tharp’s tutelage, the Cadets have become a national player in men’s collegiate swimming.

There’s a great article on Tharp and the Cadets’ swim team in Outsports.com, and I encourage you to read it. 

There is something perfectly “sports” about all of this, something that I think is at the heart of what we, as the LGBT community, know in our hearts to be the crux of the insanity around Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and it is this:  gay people can, do, and simply want to perform, based solely on their own merits.   

We don’t seek to join swim teams, get jobs, own houses, get married, adopt kids, or JOIN THE MILITARY for any reasons other than the same reasons that straight people do:  for love of family, community and country.   

Sports is – and should be – the perfect proving ground for this fact.  People should pay attention to this and learn what the “gay agenda” is really all about. 

At least in the confines of its swimming pool, West Point seems to get it.