I think I have seen this one coming for a looooong time………. regardless of the political party in power. Todays date: 12/18/2010 and the US Senate passes the repeal of the DADT (Don’t ask, don’t tell) policy that has been in effect for military service since………… I don’t know exactly when, but probably for most of MY life……
There seems to be a dividing line on this policy; most Repuplicans seem to support the DADT policy and most Democrats oppose it. I have served 20 years in the US Army and I can say that this policy to me seemed to be out of date (For lack of a better word) and very much driven by religious factions within the Rep. party (Mostly those of conservative identity IMO)
I retired in 2004 from the US Army, but in my 20 years, I had my run-ins with soldiers that were serving their country and happened to be “gay”; I will say unequivocally that not one gay soldier that I knew tried to “hit” on me or force me into a sexual relationship with them. I say that because that seems to be a fallback excuse of those that oppose having openly gay soldiers serve. I also have not experienced a similar effect from heterosexual females in the military service……….. so what’s the deal here?
Even though I am no longer a member of the active military forces, I do support the repeal of the DADT policy; look, if loving your country has to take a back seat to your sexual preferences, maybe this isn’t the country many of us envisioned after all……….. I don’t think that allowing openly gay soldiers is tantamount to supporting being gay – look, we allow all sorts of people in the military, many of whom happen to be wife beaters, sexual predators, and just plain a**holes, and there isn’t any policy to prevent their service…. get my point??
What I’m trying to say is that I advocate military service for anyone who wishes to serve; I don’t think a person’s sexual preference should be a factor in whether you can be a military patriot, and I say that from my own military experiences and being in a military unit where a soldier was under fire for potentially “being gay” during a weekend out of town event where somebody who knew him and saw him tattled to their superiors. If ONLY for that, then repealing the DADT policy is a POSITIVE for the US military, and any other organization that wants simply to get the best qualified people, regardless of their personal sexual preferences.
December 19th, 2010 at 8:39 pm
Kev, I completely agree with you on your personal stance! However, the REPEAL of this – will it allow the military to “ask” and that the person is required to “tell” – and if so, will that effect the goal of the service somehow? I agree that even if the knowledge is known that it will not, but it seems to me it isn’t about the gay soldier so much as it is about what could be termed as the homophobic soldiers, and I speak of the ones who are so freaked out that regardless of not being “hit on” or anything else, that they just can’t stand the idea (of course, as you mention, that means THEY are the ones with the real problem). Perhaps they ought to ask about ALL psychological tendencies – not just sexual preferences? In fact – how about psychological tendencies WITHOUT the mention of sexual preferences, unless it is part of the psychological signature in question? No easy answers are available I am sure, but it seems to me that the business at hand is to serve in the military – not to be labeled.
December 19th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
Absolutely NOT!
“However, the REPEAL of this – will it allow the military to “ask” and that the person is required to “tell”
That is so far from the truth; repealing the DADT policy simply states that sexual preference is NOT even a part of the application or acceptance rules…… it has NO PART in getting into the military.
Now, that being said, there are still some remnants (IMO) of people that don’t exactly get along with the gay lifestyle…. that will be something the military leaders will have to deal with up front aggressively to protect everyone.