Should I Be Discharged?

With great dismay, I read this morning about an Army National Guard Lieutenant who is going to be discharged from the military, despite his desire to serve, his successful prior deployment to Iraq, and his Arab linguist status.

The spirit of the Clinton-era "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is that homosexual servicemembers are a threat to good order and discipline. Therefore, the story goes, we shouldn't make an issue of sexual orientation, so we should neither reveal it nor ask others to reveal it.

Here's my problem, though: I am several weeks from being engaged (We've got the date for next July, the restaurant, the ring, and some other particulars worked out, but we still won't be engaged until we go through some Cambodian traditions that we won't be able to do until August).

By getting engaged, though, and announcing it here on the blog (I try to stay away from purely personal stuff, but will certainly make an exception for major milestones), I will be publicly announcing my status as a heterosexual, about to enter into long-term heterosexual matrimony. From CNN today:

First Lt. Dan Choi disclosed in March that he is gay, challenging the 1994 "don't ask, don't tell" law that requires the military to discharge troops who disclose their sexual orientation. Tuesday's ruling, made after a daylong hearing, is a step toward stripping Choi of his officer's commission and ending his career.

Just wondering if anyone could try to throw me under the bus for this. No one asked me whether I was straight or gay, but by openly, brazenly making this announcement, and then having the gumption to make a public display of it (in a church, in a home, and in the Hong Kong, no less!) I seem to be "telling" anyone who cares to listen more than they might care to know.