Minor clarification

It is possible to be emotionally unsettled about something and still concede it is right or it is wrong. While I firmly support a woman's right to serve her country in any way for which she is qualified, that doesn't mean I would encourage my daughter to seek combat or be particularly happy about that if it did happen. While I firmly believe that homosexuality is a moral challenge that those who feel tendencies in that direction are charged by God to resist and avoid, I also believe that the freedom America proclaims to stand for should entitle freedom of legal association for the purposes of insurance, survivorship, and so forth. (Which forms of legal associations are recognized as "marriages" is best left up to religions.) Racism and other forms of bigotry are not prevented through legislation, because the legislation that has been enacted has only created a different form of discrimination. They are prevented in the homes, schools, and churches of this nation by teaching children as they grow up the difference between right and wrong, and by individuals choosing not to associate with those people who do discriminate. If I learn that a business discriminates against others for service, then I will deny that business my patronage. If I learn that a coworker discriminates against others, then I will reconsider whether or not I want that person on my project team because their discrimination is prejudicial against the team spirit I try to establish as a leader. (I will tell the person why I don't believe they are a good fit for my team, so that they can choose whether or not to try to amend their negative behaviors.) We end discrimination by teaching the next generation that it is morally wrong. There's a good line from Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels about where I am with this. It is spoken by Buster Kilrain, an aide to Lt. Col. Joshua Chamberlain:

No two things on earth are equal or have an equal chance, not a leaf nor a tree. There's many a man worse than me, and some better, but I don't think race or country matters a damn. What matters is justice. 'Tis why I'm here. I'll be treated as I deserve, not as my father deserved.

And so I misused the word "equality" earlier. I should have made more clear that I believe in treating everyone fairly and with justice in accordance to the merits that they earn through their choices and actions, and not through some arbitrary demographic.