The Republican Party’s main critics of the repeal opposed it on the basis, essentially – but with some room for theoretical extrapolation of intent – that allowing gays to serve openly in the military would somehow put troops at risk. The “gays,” according to their baseless arguments, would jeopardize every mission by their flamboyant waving of purple feather boas and their high-stepped marching to the facile choruses of Lady Gaga through the rocky hillsides of Afghanistan.