The End of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell?
The military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy is the worst sort of compromise. Rather than resolve an issue, it causes it to fester. Rather than make all parties feel like they won something, it makes all parties feel like they were cheated.
Personally, I’d like to see it repealed. And now, in a handwritten note to a gay soldier, so does President Obama.
I don’t think the military should regulate the sex lives of the people who choose to lay their lives on the line for their country. Rules against affairs between people and their superiors are fine; they’re required for the smooth functioning of any large organization. But I fail to see why adultery, or having sex with someone of the same gender, is a matter to be regulated by the military.
Maybe I’m missing something fundamental about the military culture here… Could one of my readers enlighten me? Or perhaps my co-blogger Oak Leaf could do so?
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May 9th, 2009 at 12:29 am
Or perhaps my co-blogger Oak Leaf could do so?
Your co-blogger Oak Leaf has destroyed this site and a only mere handful of posters remain, or haven’t you noticed?
It’s not like posters hadn’t expressed their dissatisfaction before bailing. Many have asked for your opinion on the matter and you have ignored them all so they bailed.
Sheesh
May 9th, 2009 at 4:56 am
“Maybe I’m missing something fundamental about the military culture here…”
Yes you are. When the military embraces gay culture there is no half way. They accept it totally. Any percieved intolerance will be punished quickly. This is not like your job. Of course any harm to the military that comes from this decision will be buried and ignored. 10 years form now, we will be getting are asses handed to us in a war and you will call it bad luck. Actions have consequences.
How do you segregate gay people? We segragate men and women, but how do you segregate openly gay people? Why is it that we would be sensitive to women who didn’t want to shower with men, but if men do not want to shower with other openly gay men, wouldn’t that make them intolerant? Why shouldn’t their privacy be respected? Do you put all the openly gay people together? I can see alot of problems there also.
May 9th, 2009 at 4:59 am
Yeah Oak Leak, what is your take on this new revelation? Does this cause you weep tears of joy? Are you giving Obama a well deserved salute?
Don’t expect for Oak Leaf to direct any harsh words for Obama. He will find some way he will blame the GOP for this.
May 9th, 2009 at 5:04 am
Along the same lines, I always wonder why an openly lesbian coach of a girls sports team is allowed to go into the girls lockerroom, but if a male coach did it, he would be fired. What is the difference? Why shouldn’t the lesbian be banned from the showers also? Please don’t tell me their different.
May 9th, 2009 at 5:34 am
I think that TomT has just about said it all. Until every military man and woman is given a private room, this will never be solved. And we know that won’t happen anytime soon.
TomT,
If they let lesbians in the women’s locker room, and we can’t discriminate against people for gender identity, what’s to stop a lesbian in a man’s body like me from entering?
May 9th, 2009 at 5:56 am
I love that reasoning. I am just a lesbian trapped in a man’s body.
May 9th, 2009 at 6:24 am
Years ago….while in college I took a sociology for an easy “A”. We were required to perform a survey/poll over issues. My survey was on the issue of gay rights. What I found would still be relevant today I do believe…I interviewed over three hundred people, of all ages, races, religious, and ethnic background. What I found was that minorities, seniors, strong religious beliefs, ethnicity, young males and people in the lower income classes were most likely to be against so called gay rights. Now I don’t belief that will have changed that much over the ensuing years. We look to young males from minorities, lower income classes and that have strong religious beliefs to fill our military. So extrapolate from there what will happen to the military in the future….
May 9th, 2009 at 6:34 am
The few, the proud, the can’t-deal-with-having-someone-glance-their-way.
May 9th, 2009 at 6:42 am
When you look at the numbers coming out of Iraq, 76% of those killed were white. I will bet anybody that the majority of those people were from rural areas and very religious. People who are atheist or people who think that other people owe them a living, are not the types who will sacrifice themselves for other people or their country. Poli shouldn’t take such a casual attitude about this considering this is literally a life or death topic.
May 9th, 2009 at 6:46 am
I had a PE class with several young republicans and they would check out all the guys in the shower. But they were harmless.
May 9th, 2009 at 6:49 am
“The few, the proud, the can’t-deal-with-having-someone-glance-their-way.”
Wow, how hypocritical. Where is the sensitivity to other people’s feelings? Where is the concern over privacy? That is all I have heard for the last forty years. I guess it only matters when it is used in pursuit of raw political power. You are a bigot if you do not recognize the rights of other people.
May 9th, 2009 at 6:51 am
Don a burka; problem solved.
May 9th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Until you have had to live in the close quarters of the military, you would never understand why this has to be. Those kids are out there putting their lives on the line for us. They are subjected to what Democrats call “torture” during their training. They have virtually no privacy. They work extremely long hours for minor pay. They can’t just quit their job and go home if they don’t like it. And now you want to stick openly gay people in the bunk/shower next to them? Don’t these kids have enough on their minds already?? Our fine men and women of the military deserve as much peace as we can possibly give them.
May 9th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Heterosexual women in the military seem to somehow cope with working alongside men they don’t care to have sex with but it’s too much to ask of the men.
May 9th, 2009 at 9:25 am
Okay Brad and Mike, so you say that all men and women should share the same locker rooms, rest rooms, and showers together, because soldiers shouldn’t be afraid of their privacy being invaded by someone that (might) be attracted to them?
After all, just because a hetro man, and a hetro woman are naked together in the same room, it doesn’t mean they they would find each other attractive. So, they’re not supposed to care, huh?
May 9th, 2009 at 10:48 am
“That man looked at me.”
“War is Hell, my son.”
May 9th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Poli has finally jumped the shark. The military is no place for social experimentation. Return to the old UCMJ, and simply prohibit homos altogether from the military. This is all part of the “gay” agenda to present their perversion as common place and acceptable, same as the gay marriage push. We don’t need them in the military, and it is part of mugabes atempt to destroy the military. This site has really gone to hell, justifiably so.
May 9th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Doesn’t the military believe having NAMBLA members would enhance their stature in the eyes of the public and serve as a useful recruiting tool?
I personally think an army of Barney Franks would really rear end any potential foe.
May 10th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
What about transgender folks?
May 11th, 2009 at 1:10 am
“Social Experimentation”? Like Integration was back in the 50’s?
The UK, Canadian, and Israeli armed forces don’t have a problem with open gays in the Military. The US doesn’t have a problem with closeted ones.
In the Australian armed forces, you must resign if you transition – it’s NOT a good idea to have someone going through Hormone Hell in charge of weaponry – but after the change, you get re-instated at the same rank with no loss of seniority.
But the US Library of Congress thought mere National Security was far less important than preventing by far the best counter-terrorism expert in the country give advice to congresscritters – because Col Schroer was transsexual.
May 11th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Sounds like Ca prop 1A
If we don’t ask them
They won’t tell us they are raising taxes