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So the nation's top two defense officials agree it's time to end "don't ask, don't tell." John McCain, who is apparently more mean-spirited than I had realized, is "deeply disappointed" because the military is just too stressed right now to have to deal with something so tricky. Of course, neither Admiral Mullen or Defense Secretary Gates seem in a great hurry to actually end the policy. They think it requires time and study, that they must think carefully about how to implement a policy that allows gays and lesbians to serve in the military, openly, honestly, and without pretense.
I fail to understand what there is to study or what there is to discuss about how to implement the policy. It seems unbelievably straightforward to me, really. Starting today, if someone in the military is outed, that soldier's superior officers would simply shrug their soldiers and say, "Ok." And then the powers that be would not pursue a discharge of that soldier. Really, how hard is that?
I know I've made my feelings known about this topic here many times before, but it bears repeating. It is so deeply offensive to me that a major department of the U.S. government is still allowed to discriminate so brazenly. And for no reason other than some people think homosexuality is icky. And I've never been able to come up with any better reason for that opinion than Leviticus says so, which is really no reason at all because look at all of the other silly things Leviticus says.
Stop talking about it, stop studying it, stop pussyfooting around it. Just end the policy. Today. Stop discharging good, hardworking military men and women. It really isn't hard at all.
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5 comments:
You said it, sister!
I don't get it, either. It's not as if, all of a sudden, every gay individual in the armed forces is going to step on a platform and declare his or her sexuality. They will simply continue to serve just as they always have, with honor and dignity. What will change? Nothing. The ignorance astounds me. It's the same people over and over again: these are the ones who inexplicably declare that gay marriage threatens their own heterosexual marriage. HOW? And when they are asked this simple, one-word query, they have no real, cogent answer.
Agreed. It seems so simple. It's hard to understand why this is still an issue in our society today.bio
I'm not here to stir up trouble. I enjoy your posts. However, before we make a decision about this, consider and answer why we don't make female Soldiers share rooms/tents/bathrooms/showers with male Soldiers.
Should these female warriors have to share intimate moments with males? If not, why not?
PD, sorry to take so long to respond; I've had a pretty busy weekend.
First, I don't really know why the military segregates by gender or to what extent they actually do. At my college, each dorm floor got to vote on whether bathrooms were single sex or co-ed. I don't recall the floors with co-ed bathrooms having major problems. I just don't think it's as big a deal as others do.
But second, and much more importantly, having gay men and straight men share facilities is simply not comparable. Gay men really aren't scoping all the straight men out and they aren't really trying to harass and hit on and make uncomfortable all the straight men. It's actually pretty offensive, in my view, for straight men and women to somehow "fear" sharing locker rooms with gays and lesbians because it suggests the non-straights are somehow predatory folks who can't be trusted around the straight folks.
Right now, gay men and straight men in the military use the same bathrooms, the same locker rooms,and sleep in the same barracks. Just like gay and straight men use the same bathrooms at every ball park, concert hall, mall, etc. And they use the same locker rooms at gyms. All without problems.
I frankly think this is a red herring of an issue.
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