One of the gays, 20-year-old Drexel grad Jarrett Lucas, tells the camouflaged recruiter that he's here because he's queer and that the powers that be ought to get used to the fact that open homosexuals can be good soldiers, too.

Lucas told before he was asked. Oops.

Well, the quota-driven recruiters, who sit behind "U.S. Army: Open" and "Over 200 Ways to Be a Soldier" signs, let Lucas, Shane Bagwell and Marissa Cotroneo spend the better part of the next hour going through the application process on Tuesday. Lo and behold, each passes the initial tests. But then, the recruiter breaks out her handbook and tells the wide-eyed trio that they're too "morally deficient" to serve in the U.S. military. And that's not even the punch line.

"Then they said we could still enlist if we didn't tell anybody we were gay," recounted Lucas, who'd just told anybody who'd listen that he is gay, "or that if we were going to be open about it, we should leave."

They left.

Just like that, three openly gay young adults, through a group called Soulforce Youth, made Philadelphia the second stop of a nationwide Right To Serve campaign designed to directly challenge the 13-year-old federal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law. They hope to rally support by sending homosexuals to recruiting stations in 30 cities across the country. Regardless of whether they meet their goal of drawing attention to their views, their peers will end up feeling the exact same way as they did just after noon on Tuesday.

"I'm disappointed," said Bagwell, a 20-something blond who looks like he could be spooked playing War, the card game, "but hopefully one day things will be different."

"This is a question of honor," explained Cotroneo, a 19-year-old from Scranton who came out to her relatives, some of whom have military backgrounds, last year. "If someone's qualified, talented and driven enough, they should be allowed to serve regardless of their sexual orientation. ... How would you feel if you wanted to serve but you couldn't because you're straight?"

Well, that's where we're different, Marissa. Last thing I want to do is sign on the dotted line and head over to my desert death; I've made peace with defending America one column at a time. I still have tons of respect for you, though that respect comes with a disclaimer.

I'm not going to come down on any side of this issue. I understand why gays and lesbians want to be able to be true to themselves after they enlist, especially during wartime. I also understand why straight soldiers might have a problem with gays and lesbians among them. That said, I do have a problem with what went down Tuesday.

If you're going to launch a nationwide campaign, the goals are 1) to draw attention to the cause, and 2) upon getting some strong support, to effect change. But in talking to the potential recruits, I realized the Right To Serve campaign will only push the era of openly gay soldiers deeper into the future. For them, it's counterproductive.

The thinking goes a little something like this:

By attempting to enlist in the military and saying they'd proudly serve if permitted to do so under their terms, the three gave tacit approval to the war in Iraq and, by default, the commander in chief. Well, bad move.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell was a compromise passed during the Clinton presidency. And Clinton, you see, was as liberal a president as we've had since the peanut farmer. The would-be soldiers can't possibly think they'll have a better chance working their way into combat on Georgie boy's watch. DADT is, quite frankly, as good as it's gonna get until at least 2008.

By holding firm that they should be allowed to be openly gay soldiers, they distance themselves from the anti-war base: those folks who want the troops to come home, Donald Rumsfeld incarcerated and the fighting to end.

It becomes yet another fracture in a listless party that's already making it way too easy for their foes to maintain power. I love their moxie, but they'd be better served laying off the recruiting-station actions. Now should be a time for getting as many people together onto the same page as possible.

By dedicating themselves to strengthening a Democratic party that needs all the help it can get to wrestle power from a party with a fringe element that'd execute queers if it could, they'll find themselves in a much better position to serve their country the way they see fit.

(hickey@citypaper.net)