I had the opportunity once to sit down and talk to Brigadere General LeBouf, the first non-West Point Graduate and first female department Head of West Point's Department of Physical Education (Master of the Sword). I asked her how it was that she dealt with integrating herself into a culture and institution which not only didn't want her, but thought that her very presence was detrimental to the organization itself. What she told me has always stuck with me.

She said that at any event, she finds the oldest graduate she can and introduces herself. She said that after a night spent talking, at least one of the Old Grads would find her, shake her hand, and say, "While I thought that you would be detrimental to the organization, now that I've met you I can see that you have the best in mind for Cadets and are just like everyone else." She did this, she said, because (and this is the quotation I remember verbatim and will always carry forward):

It is easy to hate an idea, but difficult to hate a person. Sometimes, it's up to us to be the person that is that idea.

The reason we are having this argument about repealing Don't Ask/Don't Tell isn't because politicians are scared the military cannot integrate gays and lesbians, but because they know that when the military does, gays and lesbians will no longer be an easy to hate idea, but gays and lesbians will be Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who are fighting and dying for our country. They will no longer be able to demonize and ostracize as "other".

THIS is why these politicians are against integration, and anyone who says otherwise is simply lying to themselves and to the country.