Last week, our local KPBS broadcast “Carrier,” a 10-hour series chronicling life aboard the U.S.S. Nimitz, an aircraft carrier based in San Diego.

Most assumed that the program would be a puff piece for the Navy, with military brass justifying the exclusion of gays and lesbians from service. But, refreshingly, it realistically portrayed life aboard ship, showing that, remarkably, the Nimitz embodies the true American dream: men and women of all colors, religions, and races living and working together. “Carrier” showed fundamentalist Christians eating with Wiccans (witches), women flying fighter jets alongside men, an openly gay man and a lesbian wearing a Pride ring.

Yet while diversity thrives in the military, military life is still governed by rigid rules. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) prohibits all sexual activity aboard ship and all non-procreative sex, even within marriage, off ship.

However, despite the UCMJ, and despite “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” (DADT), the policy that requires gays and lesbians not to disclose their sexual orientation, military personnel aboard the Nimitz are sexually active. “Carrier” featured interviews with heterosexual and homosexual crew who admit to having sex on a regular basis, both off ship in ports of call and on board. (The number of pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases reported aboard ship certainly proves the latter.)

As for the military’s prohibition against GLBT disclosure, a statement from a 21-year-old straight sailor featured in “Carrier” said it best: “No problem, Dude,” he answered, when asked whether gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly. The filmmaker accompanied his words with a backdrop of the cramped living conditions aboard ship; four men sleeping atop four slabs mounted on top of each other.

But military life, even on the Nimitz, is still no bowl of cherries for gays and lesbians.

Anti-gay harassment of various forms is a problem. And DADT still allows separations for being openly gay and lesbian. Those who are openly gay know that there is always a risk of discharge, or, at least, prevention from obtaining security clearances, which could stifle or end one’s military career.

It’s absurd, as we all know.

That’s why both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have pledged to end DADT.

John McCain, however, clings to it, although, ironically, it’s an issue that could cost him severely because it shows he’s out of touch with the majority of voters in the U.S., particularly those in their 20s and 30s.

Of course, this is not an issue of ageism or generational divide. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Steven is approaching 90, but his views on such issues as gay rights, choice and medical marijuana are directly in line with life as it is in 2008. John McCain, however, is approaching 72, and his views on many social issues are in line with life as it was in the 1930s, when he was born.

While John McCain touts the continued need for draconian military policies against sex outside of marriage, all the Democratic nominees need to do to dispute him is to broadcast clips from “Carrier,” showing how military personnel accomplish missions, even when they engage in sex outside of marriage, even when married personnel engage in oral and anal sex within their marriages, even when gays and lesbians disclose and practice their sexuality.

After all, the UCMJ prohibits everything other than procreative sex inside a valid marriage, and if enforced with zero tolerance, it would mean discharge for everyone who is gay or lesbian, has masturbated aboard ship or received oral sex from anyone, including a spouse ? meaning, there’d be no military.

Why, that would be a threat to national security wouldn’t it?