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thoreauI served aboard nuclear submarines from 1985-1989 - and I can tell you it's a violent, brutal place for gay people - - and deserves the study and cultural education its going to take to accomplish. You come out in the military now - and you'll wake to beatings until they set you outside the gate. I was outed and released from duty five years before the DADT law was signed by President Clinton.
I watched a fellow sailor get outed overseas - and on the command ship he was sent to he arrived in a military prison with "THIS MAN IS A FAGGOT" written on the side of his duffle bag.
When I was accused of being gay - being aboard a submarine - they moved to an entirely different base for discharge to protect me from physical assault - but that was only after a sailor before had been so badly beaten by his shipmates that he spent a month in a hospital BEFORE being escorted to the gate. Because of my clearances I was accused and escorted to the gate within three weeks; stripped of all my rank and service and my GI bill for education and my VA benefits stripped away as well.
It also came with a government code - that forbade from working in ANY government service; solely because of my homosexuality. So no Post Office, no Forest Service - with one stamp of the RE-4 Renlistment Code I was blacklisted from working in any federal government capacity.
I believe President Obama when he says he will repeal DADT on his watch - and I believe Def Sec Gates when he says he will study and work with his generals and admirals to do so if ordered.
I get tired of hearing people that have never lived around the military - or lived IN the military - -- tell me how awesome it would be if President Obama forced the military to repeal DADT or simply ordered the Defense Department to stop enforcing it.
The culture of the US Military is going to have make a quantitative shift to accept openly gay men and women. and before we make the case for Truman's desegregation of the troops - he did so without a law on the books declaring it so. (a black/white racial version of the DADT law did not exist for Truman to be in violation of). Do I think the President's strategy on DADT repeal is the one that makes me feel the best? no. Is it the political reality - absolutely. Particularly if John McCain takes control of the Armed Services Committee in the Senate things could just get a lot harder for GLBT service men and women.
What does the larger GLBT community see as the net gain for achieving LGBT equality in the armed services?
Is every queer that ever thought of "seeing the world" going to go out and enlist? would out-of-work gays and lesbians join the service rather than remain unemployed? or will it remain a working class blue collar choice - and we'll continue recruiting into services only the people with no economical or sociological choice to do otherwise? and then ship them overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan to get shot up?
Folks that scream for DADT repeal now - need to see the forest for the trees.
Think about the ENTIRE issue - not just the shiny happy goal of gay equality. Think about the culture change that will demand of an armed services that is extremely homophobic and at it's base - rabidly conservative from the lowest airman out of basic training to the Commandant of the Marine Corps. It make a nice sound bite or discussion point - but the issue is far bigger than wearing a rainbow flag on a military base most people screaming for DADT repeal will never choose to step foot upon.
I watched a fellow sailor get outed overseas - and on the command ship he was sent to he arrived in a military prison with "THIS MAN IS A FAGGOT" written on the side of his duffle bag.
When I was accused of being gay - being aboard a submarine - they moved to an entirely different base for discharge to protect me from physical assault - but that was only after a sailor before had been so badly beaten by his shipmates that he spent a month in a hospital BEFORE being escorted to the gate. Because of my clearances I was accused and escorted to the gate within three weeks; stripped of all my rank and service and my GI bill for education and my VA benefits stripped away as well.
It also came with a government code - that forbade from working in ANY government service; solely because of my homosexuality. So no Post Office, no Forest Service - with one stamp of the RE-4 Renlistment Code I was blacklisted from working in any federal government capacity.
I believe President Obama when he says he will repeal DADT on his watch - and I believe Def Sec Gates when he says he will study and work with his generals and admirals to do so if ordered.
I get tired of hearing people that have never lived around the military - or lived IN the military - -- tell me how awesome it would be if President Obama forced the military to repeal DADT or simply ordered the Defense Department to stop enforcing it.
The culture of the US Military is going to have make a quantitative shift to accept openly gay men and women. and before we make the case for Truman's desegregation of the troops - he did so without a law on the books declaring it so. (a black/white racial version of the DADT law did not exist for Truman to be in violation of). Do I think the President's strategy on DADT repeal is the one that makes me feel the best? no. Is it the political reality - absolutely. Particularly if John McCain takes control of the Armed Services Committee in the Senate things could just get a lot harder for GLBT service men and women.
What does the larger GLBT community see as the net gain for achieving LGBT equality in the armed services?
Is every queer that ever thought of "seeing the world" going to go out and enlist? would out-of-work gays and lesbians join the service rather than remain unemployed? or will it remain a working class blue collar choice - and we'll continue recruiting into services only the people with no economical or sociological choice to do otherwise? and then ship them overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan to get shot up?
Folks that scream for DADT repeal now - need to see the forest for the trees.
Think about the ENTIRE issue - not just the shiny happy goal of gay equality. Think about the culture change that will demand of an armed services that is extremely homophobic and at it's base - rabidly conservative from the lowest airman out of basic training to the Commandant of the Marine Corps. It make a nice sound bite or discussion point - but the issue is far bigger than wearing a rainbow flag on a military base most people screaming for DADT repeal will never choose to step foot upon.
