The New York Times takes an in-depth look today at how the successes of women in combat positions in Iraq has changed the Army.

One big switch? Sex is no longer a big deal on the front lines:

“Opponents of integrating women in combat zones long feared that sex would mean the end of American military prowess. But now birth control is available — the PX at Warhorse even sold out of condoms one day recently — reflecting a widely accepted reality that soldiers have sex at outposts across Iraq.”

Also:

“[Women] have changed the way the United States military goes to war. They have reshaped life on bases across Iraq and Afghanistan. They have cultivated a new generation of women with a warrior’s ethos — and combat experience — that for millennia was almost exclusively the preserve of men. And they have done so without the disruption of discipline and unit cohesion that some feared would unfold at places like Warhorse.”

All of this is interesting for gays and lesbians who are seeking to be out while serving in the military, because many of these same concerns – that open gays will lead to rampant sex on bases, that unit cohesion will be frayed, that soldiers will leave the Army in droves – have not come to pass.

Indeed, commanders have found women to be excellent soldiers, and have found male soldiers to eventually accept them without comment.

Our soldiers are more resilent than politicians make them out to be. We don’t have to protect them from open gay and lesbian soldiers any more than we needed to protect them from women.