puts a target on your queer military and government members from within. It makes them vulnerable to blackmail and subjects them to internal discord and disaplinary action threatening rediness and cohesion.

The Stasi, the intelligence agency of the nation Putin was stationed in and I assume had worked with, figured this shit out in the 80's. They even made up a goofy term for it, "the political misuse of homosexuals." They then realized the solution was to literally urge the SED to find “resolution[s] to homosexuals’ humanitarian problems,” which resulted in the government doing a complete 180 on queer rights.