The criteria for serving one’s country should be competence, courage and willingness to serve. When we deny people the chance to serve because of their sexual orientation, we deprive them of their rights of citizenship, and we deprive our armed forces the service of willing and capable Americans.

Feinstein frames military service as a civic right and a pragmatic necessity rather than a privilege contingent on identity. By naming “competence, courage and willingness to serve” as the only legitimate criteria, she argues that sexual orientation is irrelevant to readiness and unit effectiveness. The quote also links exclusion to two harms: it violates equal citizenship (a moral and constitutional claim) and it weakens national defense by turning away qualified volunteers (a utilitarian claim). The rhetoric is designed to appeal across ideological lines—grounding inclusion both in fairness and in the armed forces’ interest in maximizing talent and commitment.