Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
Congress is holding its first hearing in 15 years! on the don't ask, don't tell policy. What do you all think? It is appropriate to bar bisexuals, gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military? Can we afford to even do this anymore? If gays were finally allowed to serve openly in the military, do you think they would join?
I say this policy is outdated and needs to be abolished. I knew several women in basic training that were gay…a few males…served in Iraq with several gay Soldiers also. We were one big happy family…its 2008…get over it. This isn’t your grandfathers Army anymore.
Here is an article that appeared in Time magazine today.
I say this policy is outdated and needs to be abolished. I knew several women in basic training that were gay…a few males…served in Iraq with several gay Soldiers also. We were one big happy family…its 2008…get over it. This isn’t your grandfathers Army anymore.
Here is an article that appeared in Time magazine today.
posted by GI Kate at 1:58 PM
7 Comments:
Very backwards policy that I will be glad to see gone. Makes no sense to pay new recruits $50-$80,000 bonuses when there are gay/lesbian people who are willing to join if they can just be open. It doesn't really represent the ideals that America is supposed to represent at all either.
I feel I have some justification for being an arbiter on this issue since I was on a submarine in close quarters with a bunch of dudes. I say DADT is lame. We had a couple of gay dudes on the boat, and no one seemed to care.
I say open the closet doors (as it were). The only problem I would have is that a person is gay, lesbian or even some religious fanatic - don't flaunt it or act like you want to convert every one. While at work, work! Make sure males adhere to male policies (like no ear rings in uniform) even if you feel your a female trapped in a man's body.
I find it humorous just how backwards we have been - this is from the Bluejackets manual from just a few years ago,
“There are a lot of mistaken ideas about homosexuality. Some examples: a homosexual can be detected by speech characteristics, manner or dress. (This is not true in most cases.) VD cannot be contracted through homosexual acts. (It can, and frequently is.) The Navy will “cure” homosexuals. (The Navy does not have the facilities or personnel for this; and even if it did, treatment is not always successful.)“
In the end it will not change the bonus situation. Bonuses are paid out for only two reasons, its a job nobody wants to do or its a job very few can do. Bonuses are actually the cheap way overall to go - pay a person $30K to re-enlist and you potentially saved $100K to find another and train them up. I see bonuses (re-enlistment) actually rising over the next 15 years as the nuclear industry gets back to full swing (just one example).
It needs to end. As a gay vet I know the BS that the policy is. It puts gay people under undue stress that straight soldiers don't have to deal with. Its not about yelling to people that you are gay, its about not having to hide dumb shit like saying hey babe on a phone call, or not holding your girlfriends hand at the state fair or not having to pretend your girlfriend is your roomate.
Its also about on days like 9/11 being able to kiss your girlfriend goodbye at the Armory before you drive out for NYC.
As a US Marine, I can tell you that in the Corps, we would NOT want sodomites "openly" serving in our service. We are entirely different than the other services and the esprit de corps and camaraderie that is unique to the Marines would not be the same nor as effective if they were to allow sodomites to serve openly. I do not believe in "witch-hunting" anyone, but I do not want them in my Marine Corps and I am sure that 95% or more Marines would agree with me. Particularly in the Combat arms specialties. If that upsets anyone, I apologize-I have a right to an opinion, I've earned it. Furthermore, I have been in for 21 years and have never known of anyone being a sodomite in the Corps. Besides, whether anyone likes it or not, it is a choice lifestyle and it is still a sin, and no amount of "diversity" or general "acceptance" is going to change the fact that it is a sin.
I don't see what the big deal is. For about half my time in the Navy, I was single. I don't remember anyone asking me if I liked women, nor did I feel like I had to "be open" about my sexuality. I don't get why gays would feel like they aren't being themselves if they don't tell the world they are gay. Pretty much every single guy had guy room mates. I would be you paycheck to paycheck that it will be a problem if they get rid of it. For every gay that won't try to do something stupid, there will be one that does. For every straight that doesn't have a problem with it, there will be one that does. Either way it creates more problems than before. All at the expense of a minority not being able to feel like themselves. Sorry, but I don't believe in adjusting the majority to appease the minority. Society as a whole is different, there it's an issue of freedom and privacy. I have no problems with anyone based on their sexuality. But, the military's role is to support and defend the Constitution, no where in the oath does it say we live by it.
Gunsup8606, let me ask you a question, I hope you will respond.
If being gay is a choice, YOU would be ABLE to choose it, but just "choose" not to. So tell me, could YOU have sex with another man and enjoy it and actively seek it out (as in could you "choose" to like sex with men as much as you do with women).
If you could NOT do that and there are OTHER people who CAN "choose" to do that, then there is something that is different between you and those who choose it. Maybe they are born with it?
Olgreydog7, your description of what your life was like is not what life is like if you are gay undr DADT. No one may have asked you and you may not have felt the need to be open about your sexuality but that is because everyone assumed you were straight and you never felt you had to hide that. Imagine having to hide that you are straight. NEVER mention you have a GF, NEVER mention your thoughts on women, NEVER mention marriage and the list goes on. You don't realize all the restriction becasue you don't live them, if you take the time to imagine being in that situation you would see why gay people feel it is restrictive. Its not like we start every sentence with "Hi I am gay, how is your day?", so making DADT sound like no big deal, by comparing it to not doing that, is inaccurate.
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