If gays can openly serve, will straights still want to? (xpost from Veterans)

[unhappycamper]

If gays can openly serve, will straights still want to?
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, November 18, 2009

WASHINGTON — Stephen Vossler was an 18-year-old from a conservative Nebraska family when he joined the Army. So when he found out his first roommate was being kicked out of the service under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” law — and soon afterward that his new best friend was secretly gay — he was stunned.

Today, nine years later, Vossler is an outspoken advocate for allowing homosexuals to serve openly, saying his experience is the perfect example of the transition from awkwardness to acceptance that most troops will work through if the ban is overturned.

“Are straight guys going to feel uncomfortable? Yeah, they definitely will,” the former Army intelligence officer said. “But you feel uncomfortable digging a foxhole. You feel uncomfortable riding in a Humvee for 10 hours.

“You’re gonna have to get over it,” Vossler continued. “I think there’s going to be a lot of people who are going to logic their way through this and end up saying it just doesn’t matter.”

Sometime in the next few months, lawmakers on Capitol Hill say they will begin work toward repealing the controversial law and testing those theories. At the heart of the matter: whether the U.S. military should be allowed to maintain a different set of employment rules regarding homosexuals than nearly every other U.S. public and private workplace, firing employees based solely on their sexual orientation.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66171

[Fearless]

1. The whole idea is to show people that we're just people too

And deserve the rights that all others receive. I can't think of a more effective way for this to happen than to be shot at together.

[imdjh]

2. Totally off topic "...logic their way through this" Arghhh!

But a good excuse to kick the thread

[Not Me]

3. I always thought it was interesting...

throughout the first Iraq war as well as the second, we gushed over the support of our British allies; apparently they seem not to have problems with 'unit cohesion'.

[sui generis]

4. fine with me.

If those big baby macho dudes want to go sit on their asses back home in their backwater back alley hell holes with no chance of education or work experience because they were so skeerdy afraid of the gays in the military, so be it.

More guns for us.

[Crowman1979]

5. If having LGBTs in the military will get rid of the religious nutjobs, then...

...HELL YEAH I'll still want to serve. Of course other mitigating factors such as: Wars based on lies, wars used to the continuing profits of the military industrial complex, the funding of private contractors in a war zone, war crimes from private contractors going unpunished and our nation's screwed up foreign policy are the real reasons that I will not re-enlist anytime soon.

[TexasObserver]

6. Another one I'd recommend if it were not too late.

[Brooklyns_Finest]

7. I'm Curious

When gays are finally allowed to serve openly in the military, how will the people in charge deal with the harassment charges that will surely follow. Anyone who serves in the military will tell you that not a day goes by where you don't here multiple gay jokes. It was the same thing when I played football in college. This is just a causal effect in being in an extremely macho environment. I don't see this kind of talk changing even with the change in policy. The military has plenty of blacks and Hispanics, yet we heard constant jokes about mexicans or the "brothers" by fellow Marines. Women serve in the military, yet sexual harassment is a major issue that is not dealt with properly in the military. I see gays having the same issues.

So will a gay person complain to their commanding officer about the jokes, or will they just deal with it? Also, what will happen to a soldier who is accused of making an off color gay joke? I'm not talking about serious harassment here, I am talking about male locker room humor.

It might not play out the way I am thinking, but when you are dealing with 18 year old kids here, don't expect too much sensitivity.

[gaspee]

8. Why

Are you even here? Why are you in the LGBT forum and why are you here at DU - every single one of your posts that I have come across threads in which I happen to be in (meaning I am not looking for you, you just show up) has been full of less than Democratic (big D) ideals.

Are you a former republican moderate who decided the republican party is no longer for him? I'm asking out of curiosity, not malice.

And to answer your question, if we never went anywhere we might be not wanted or were *really* not wanted, we wouldn't exist at all. And we're not even as close to sensitive as you seem to think we are. I wonder why other first-class military organizations around the world have openly serving gay members without issues. I guess their military members understand professionalism and solidarity better than ours do.

Women have a shitty time in the military (due to the extremely bad behavior of their so-called comrades in arms) but they still enlist because they want to serve their country or they want to avail themselves of the same opportunities men get. Are you saying our male soldiers are going to rape our gay soldiers? Because that's what they're doing to their own sisters-in-arms - what could possibly be worse than that? A couple of gay jokes? Seriously?

I don't know why so many people have such a low opinion of our soldiers (well, I know why I do - it's mostly how women soldiers are treated.)

[Brooklyns_Finest]

10. I've always voted democrat

Mostly for economic reasons. Most of the people in my social circle are democrats but would probably not fit in with many on this site. Liberal and democrat are not always the same thing. I don't think I could ever vote for a republican (besides someone like Bloomberg), yet a lot of the wacky stuff I read on this site does not sit well with me either. However, I do like coming here because there can be some good discussion and debate on this site.

Also, I find it hilarious that you would question why I post here. Do you question the pacifist and socialist on this site? Neither of those mindsets are congruent with Democratic principles. They don't call this the big tent party for no reason.

[roughsatori]

9. That would be wonderful if heterosexuals refused to serve: We would have no more war. NT