We need to end the selective service. The gender double standard is not consonant with our overriding gender neutral laws. It's a peculiar remnant of a chivalry that should not be institutionalized in law.

There's no draft, and little chance of a draft now, so why must all men, and only men, between the ages of 18 and 25 and living in the United States, register for a potential military draft under the nation's Selective Service System?

No hardship making young men register, you say? The hardship is if you don't register. My guess is that a lot of disadvantaged guys don't, for any number of reasons. What happens if a man fails to register? "A man who fails to register may, if prosecuted and convicted, face a fine of up to $250,000 and/or a prison term of up to five years. Even if not tried, a man who fails to register with Selective Service before turning age 26 may find that some doors are permanently closed."

Among the doors permanently closed to men who fail to register are the following:

STUDENT FINANCIAL AID: Men, born after December 31, 1959, who aren't registered with Selective Service won't qualify for Federal student loans or grant programs. This includes Pell Grants, College Work Study, Guaranteed Student/Plus Loans, and National Direct Student Loans.

CITIZENSHIP: The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) makes registration with Selective Service a condition for U.S. citizenship if the man first arrived in the U.S. before his 26th birthday.

FEDERAL JOB TRAINING: The Workforce Investment Act (formerly called the Job Training Partnership Act - JTPA) offers programs that can train young men for jobs in auto mechanics and other skills. This program is only open to those men who register with Selective Service. Only men born after December 31, 1959, are required to show proof of registration.

FEDERAL JOBS: A man must be registered to be eligible for jobs in the Executive Branch of the Federal government and the U.S. Postal Service. Proof of registration is required only for men born after December 31, 1959.

The states have their own penalties for men who fail to register.

Women are exempt from registering, yet, the Selective Service's Web site is replete with assertions of its own fairness. The following sentences are teeming with irony: "If a draft is ever needed, it must be as fair as possible, and that fairness depends on having as many eligible men as possible registered." And: "Only if there is high compliance with this law, will a future draft be fair and equitable."

It seems palpably hollow to assert that a future draft will "be fair and equitable" if it excludes from the outset more than one-half of the pool of eligible registrants merely because of their birth class; namely, all females aged 18-26.

And, no, I don't want women to be forced to register. No one should have to register.

But every year, even without a draft, the present law is penalizing a massive number of men, and only men, by making them possible felons and permanently stripping them of valuable rights and privileges that their same-age female peers, and the men who know to register, have. The numbers of men affected are staggering. According to the Annual Report to Congress of the Selective Service System for fiscal year 2009: "[I]f a man fails to register, or fails to provide evidence that he is exempt from the registration requirement . . ., his name is referred to the Department of Justice . . . for possible investigation and prosecution for his failure to register, as required by the Military Selective Service Act. During FY 2009, 169,586 names and addresses of suspected violators were provided to the DoJ, an increase of 22% from FY 2008." And every name on that list is male.

Let that number sink in: 169,586. It is reasonable to assume that the vast majority of these men are lacking in education and social standing, and most likely just don't fully understand -- despite the Selective Service System's explicit warnings -- what failing to register could mean to them. The penalties to be imposed on these men for this infraction will only add to their oppression.