![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
It's about frigging time!
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was at least a step forward from where we'd been for years, but it was still ridiculous. The idea that someone who *wanted* to serve their country should be barred from doing so because of their preferences for intimate partners just boggles my mind.
Let's see, there's the Special Forces unit whose commander freely admitted that yes, one of the members on his team was gay, and they all knew it. They also considered him the biggest, meanest, toughest son-of-a-bitch on the team, and he was VERY good at doing his job and dispatching their enemies -- which was all they cared about.
Closer to home, there was one of my room-mates. He looked like the perfect mugging victim. In all the years I knew him, I only ever saw him lose his temper twice, and both times I feared for people's lives. On one occasion when he lost his temper, he couldn't find the person he was mad at, but managed to find the person's van, and proceeded to total it -- without the use of implements.
Let's face it, there have been people of all sexual orientations serving in the military of every nation on the planet throughout history. Why have we been so stupid as to take these individuals who are willing to themselves in harm's way for us and tell them that they're not fit to do so because we don't agree with their sexual preferences?
Yes, it will cause some friction at first, just like it did when we integrated blacks into the military -- which was another stupid barrier that never should have been there. Today it is almost unheard of for someone to claim a soldier/sailor/airman/marine is less able to do his job because of the color of his skin. I fervently hope that we will soon see that same "color-blindness" being applied to sexual orientations as well.
Heh. It will be a challenge for the male drill instructors, though. Having been declared "4F," I've never been through Boot Camp, so I can only assume that the tv/movie representations vary widely in their accuracy. One thing that does seem to come up fairly frequently, though, is the DI questioning the recruits' masculinity.
I can just picture the look on the DI's face if the conversation in "Full Metal Jacket" had gone more like:
DI: Do you suck dicks? Are you a peter-puffer?
Pvt Cowboy: Sir, yes, sir!
DI: ...
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was at least a step forward from where we'd been for years, but it was still ridiculous. The idea that someone who *wanted* to serve their country should be barred from doing so because of their preferences for intimate partners just boggles my mind.
Let's see, there's the Special Forces unit whose commander freely admitted that yes, one of the members on his team was gay, and they all knew it. They also considered him the biggest, meanest, toughest son-of-a-bitch on the team, and he was VERY good at doing his job and dispatching their enemies -- which was all they cared about.
Closer to home, there was one of my room-mates. He looked like the perfect mugging victim. In all the years I knew him, I only ever saw him lose his temper twice, and both times I feared for people's lives. On one occasion when he lost his temper, he couldn't find the person he was mad at, but managed to find the person's van, and proceeded to total it -- without the use of implements.
Let's face it, there have been people of all sexual orientations serving in the military of every nation on the planet throughout history. Why have we been so stupid as to take these individuals who are willing to themselves in harm's way for us and tell them that they're not fit to do so because we don't agree with their sexual preferences?
Yes, it will cause some friction at first, just like it did when we integrated blacks into the military -- which was another stupid barrier that never should have been there. Today it is almost unheard of for someone to claim a soldier/sailor/airman/marine is less able to do his job because of the color of his skin. I fervently hope that we will soon see that same "color-blindness" being applied to sexual orientations as well.
Heh. It will be a challenge for the male drill instructors, though. Having been declared "4F," I've never been through Boot Camp, so I can only assume that the tv/movie representations vary widely in their accuracy. One thing that does seem to come up fairly frequently, though, is the DI questioning the recruits' masculinity.
I can just picture the look on the DI's face if the conversation in "Full Metal Jacket" had gone more like:
DI: Do you suck dicks? Are you a peter-puffer?
Pvt Cowboy: Sir, yes, sir!
DI: ...
Tags: