Active duty gays say coming out has been non-event

[In Other News]

Source: MSNBC

LAS VEGAS — Chief Warrant Officer Charlie Morgan kept it simple and sweet. She was eight months into a nine-month assignment in Kuwait, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had just informed Congress that the U.S. armed forces were ready to integrate openly gay troops.

Morgan decided the time was right to come out to her commander. The photograph of her wife and 4-year-old daughter she kept hidden on her desk helped her do it.

"I said, 'Sir, I would like to introduce you to someone. This is my family,'" Morgan recalled of her July conversation with her boss, an Army colonel leading a 2,400-soldier brigade. "He said, 'Charlie, you have a beautiful family. You know, "don't ask, don't tell" prevented me from getting to know you.'"

Nearly four weeks after the U.S. lifted its "don't ask, don't tell" banning open service by gay men, lesbians and bisexuals, similar stories of secret-shedding, relief and acceptance were swapped Saturday at the first-ever national convention of gay military personnel on active duty.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44921415/ns/us_news-life/#.TptNW7K3OvY

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A non-event, just like the legalization of gay marriage here in Canada. It's been five years now, and, the last time I looked, our society had not collapsed.

;-)

[Ishoutandscream2]

1. Of course. Sane, rational people knew this

:-)

[NYC_SKP]

2. K/R (nt)

[Cirque du So-What]

3. So, the squawking and flailing about aimlessly

by the homophobic Chicken Littles was all for nought; the sky was not actually falling after all.

[PSPS]

12. It wasn't for naught, really. It was only intended to garner votes, and it worked.

[surrealAmerican]

17. This may be exactly what they most feared.

Now they'll have a harder time justifying discrimination in other contexts.

[bluestateguy]

4. The macho manly Alpha Male military types either don't care or are retired from the service now

Those who don't like the new policy are welcome to look elsewhere for employment once their enlistment ends.

And good luck with that.

[Johnyawl]

13. A lot of those macho manly alpha male types in the military are gay.

And some of them are lesbians. :7

[PavePusher]

18. Being "macho manly Alpha Male military types"=/=being a bigot.

Who's stereotyping now, eh?

[Drale]

5. I bet most of the time

if someone came out to their unit, the guys in their unit where not that surprised, its very hard to truly hide something that big about yourself without letting little things slip.

[Rozlee]

9. Over almost 20 years of being an Army Reservist and active duty

I can attest that the military (read: males) would rant about homosexuals in the service, but then, would mingle and bud around with the guys in our unit that they knew were gay. While we were in the Gulf Wars--especially the first one in which our hospital unit spent over 6 months in the desert in the same camp with the same 240 people--we knew exactly who was gay and who wasn't. I think it was all posturing. I never heard anyone saying once that they felt uncomfortable bathing in the shower tent along with any of the gay troops. Face to face, and person to person, people cease to become the monsters of their imaginations.

[SoapBox]

6. K & R nt

[gateley]

7. Although we pretty much knew it, I'm happy to hear they're not encountering

problems. :grouphug:

[xchrom]

8. Recommend

[kestrel91316]

10. GOOD. Let the military be filled with PFLAG and LGBT, and let

the fundies retire or stop re-upping. I don't want hatemongers representing my country to the world.

[pinto]

11. What a great approach - 'Sir, I would like to introduce you to someone. This is my family,'"

:thumbsup:

[chollybocker]

14. Of course.

DADT was a blatant insult to GLBT military personnel, but also was an insult to the intelligence and humanity of their fellow heterosexual service members. I hope they will remember this when they next mail in their votes.

[Taverner]

15. Yes. Exactly. Most of the people who "mind" are over sixty, and chase kids off their lawn

[iandhr]

16. There was a repeal DADT ad...

Where an Australian retired general said that allows gays to serve openly in their army was like Y2K. "A non-event and continues be a non event"

[Lucinda]

19. Thank you!

:) Good to hear Canada hasn't fallen off the planet too.

[Little Tich]

20. Santorum: Race, Homosexuality Not Comparable Measures for Military Service

Source: Fox News

Someone's race is not a factor in his ability to serve in the military because it's a passive trait, but homosexuality requires active behavior and that makes it a potential barrier to unit cohesion in the military, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said Sunday, distinguishing between an earlier argument against integration in the Armed Forces.

Explaining his opposition to the repeal of don't ask, don't tell, the defunct military policy that prohibits gays from serving openly in the military, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate said the two situations are "very, very different."


"I mean, we are talking about people who are, you know, simply different because of the color of their skin, not because of activities that would cause problems for people living in those close quarters," said Santorum, considered one of the most socially conservative candidates in the race.

Read More: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/09/santorum-race-homosexuality-not-comparable-to-measure-fitness-to-serve/

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The forces of Darkness are gathering at Fox News...

[burrowowl]

21. K&R

[Blue_Tires]

22. That can't be right...Almost everyone swore the world would come to an end!!

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

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