[mshollyk]

lift the ban!!

 

[RowansDad]

It is worth remembering that the first U.S. casualty during the 2003 invasion of Iraq was gay, leaving a leg there...

Gay veteran calls for end of 'Don't ask, don't tell'

"Staff Sgt. Eric Alva was one of the first Americans -- perhaps the first -- to be wounded in Iraq when he lost his leg to a land mine.

"But for years, Alva kept a secret: He is gay.

"Who would have guessed that the first American wounded was a gay Marine?" Alva said Wednesday."

From:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/...ary/index.html

 

[fishface]

I was going to join the Navy when I started college. Two recruiters came to my house and talked about my options with my mom and me. They made active attempts to discourage me from studying Arabic because "they (in the Middle East) don't want to deal with women."

 

[merpk]

Yeah, I saw this a few weeks back. Man.

Makes you want to

doesn't it.

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=689809

"Don't Ask, Don't Translate."

 

[violafemme]

I am of the opinion that we will never be able to have gays openly serving in the military until we first figure out how to have women integrated effectively into the service.

There is still way too much bonding and 'cohesion' that centers around male heterosexual rituals and language which even when it excludes and degrades women in uniform continues. Until we figure out how to fix that, I don't see how we can integrate gays openly.

having said that, so long as they stayed 'under the radar', I knew quite a few gay service members while I was in and particularly in the Navy linguist community, it really wasn't an issue..............unless you specifically went to someone in your chain of command (or someone went and 'outed' a servicemember to the COC) and told them, nobody really cared. One guy I went to language school was simply told to 'butch it up' a bit before he sashed on to the stage to recieve his award for graduating top of his class. It's probaby more of an issue for the Army and the Marine.

It's a stupid stupid policy.

 

[ChasingPeace]

Doesn't there seem to be a large number of Arabic linguists who are being discharged for being gay? It makes me wonder if some of them are not really gay, but just want out of Iraq. The policy is stupid and one we can't afford to have now.

 

[SirPentor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by violafemme I am of the opinion that we will never be able to have gays openly serving in the military until we first figure out how to have women integrated effectively into the service.

Here-here. My brother (chaplains assistent, has been through two deployments to Iraq; might be expecting another) talks about how women shouldn't be soldiers. He gives reasons and they are all about expectations and systemic optimizations for men (or less politely: sexism). I don't talk to him about it any more.

 

[PajamaMama]

My husband and I were both Arabic linguists on active duty in the Army during the first Gulf War. We were discharged afterwards before our terms of active duty were up under a reduction in force option, even though we were both very good at what we did and had top scores on the language test given at the end of training and again periodically. The military is criminally short sighted in my opinion.

I knew people when I was on active duty who were homosexuals. They adhered to 'don't ask, don't tell' kind of lifestyle. I found THAT policy almost criminal too. As a woman I endured unbelievable harassment and NONE of it was from homosexuals.