Pentagon surveys troops on DADT (again)

[Lamplighter]

Yes, I agree that was one of the facets in this issue ... the way it was stated in the press...
but there was a broader concern (Protestant prejudice) about what Kennedy would do as a Catholic President.

Here are some quotes from Wiki

At the 1956 Democratic National Convention, Kennedy was nominated
for Vice President on a ticket with presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson,
but finished second in the balloting to Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee.
Kennedy received national exposure from that episode;
his father thought it just as well that his son lost, due to the political debility
of his Catholicism and the strength of the Eisenhower ticket.

Kennedy visited a coal mine in West Virginia;
most miners and others in that predominantly conservative, Protestant state
were quite wary of Kennedy's Roman Catholicism.
His victory in West Virginia confirmed his broad popular appeal.

To address fears that his being Catholic would impact his decision-making,
he famously told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12, 1960,
"I am not the Catholic candidate for President.
I am the Democratic Party candidate for President who also happens to be a Catholic.
I do not speak for my Church on public matters – and the Church does not speak for me."[48]

Kennedy questioned rhetorically whether one-quarter of Americans were relegated
to second-class citizenship just because they were Catholic, and once stated that,
"No one asked me my religion [serving the Navy] in the South Pacific."