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Pentagon urgently needs more soldiers -- but get lost if you're gay!

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cboy4 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-14-06 03:43 AM
Original message
Pentagon urgently needs more soldiers -- but get lost if you're gay!
FROM N.Y. TIMES 9/14/06

As the Pentagon’s search for soldiers grows more urgent, gay rights groups are making the biggest push in nearly a decade to win repeal of a compromise policy, encoded in a 1993 law and dubbed “don’t ask, don’t tell,” that bars openly gay people from serving in the military.

<snip>

A 2004 report by the Urban Institute concluded that at least 60,000 gay people were serving in the armed forces, including the Reserves and the National Guard. But since 1993, at least 11,000 members have been discharged for being openly gay, among them 800 in highly crucial jobs, according to the Government Accountability Office, Congress’s investigative arm.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/us/14gay.html?hp&ex=1158206400&en=c51f3ff0f2068574&ei=5094&partner=homepage


From left, John Alaniz, Derek House and Justin Hager all showed up at a recruiting center but were turned away because they are openly gay
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Yes, of course I'm not sure why anyone would want to be associated with this criminal administration's policy of killing people en route to its ultimate goal of world domination.

However, that's really not the point. It's simply unfair that decent Americans are being turned away simply because they're gay.

Theoretically, they should be signing up anyone who has two arms, two legs, a head and a pulse.

And kicking out all of these gay linguists who speak Arabic and Farsi.....well, that's outrageous and tremendously irresponsible.
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Wetzelbill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-14-06 03:47 AM
Response to Original message
1. well yeah that makes sense
:eyes:
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xchrom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-14-06 06:31 AM
Response to Original message
2. of course that means there are NO gay people in
the armed services now.

:sarcasm:
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sui generis Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-14-06 09:56 AM
Response to Original message
3. why is the poe-lice there?
he asked innocently.

Were they afraid we'd break out a curling iron and some fabulous drapes and let those bastards have it?

I'll bet it wasn't to protect the gay boys.

Well, U.S. Navy, my SO was a Lieutenant Cdr on the Enterprise and you paid for his education, all of it, in everything you trained him in. Everything. And he played his cards close to the vest and walked away with those skills, and others will too, with or without your DADT policy.

We've both participated as civilians in highly sensitive NAVCOM routing studies and written the software and logistics to support your global supply chain through every port and entry on this planet. And you didn't even know it. We know every point, nexus and weakness in your entire Naval supply operation, every ship, route, warehouse and ingrown hair on your collective ass. I can recite what form of bin packing algorithm you use in which conditions and which equipment you avoid zone centric cargo distribution. You just said we couldn't share that information, not that we couldn't talk about it. Smiles ingratiatingly.

Dear Navy, if we gay boys and gals wanted to fuck you up, we would have already, and there isn't a fucking thing on this planet you could have done to stop us. Not a god damn thing. And if we collectively want in, we'll get in, and no dumbfuck DADT policy will keep us out. You really are a bunch of heads-up-your own ass idiots. Really. Don't know what you're doing. The names and internal numbers, routes, route times, and transport optimizations of every ship, train, plane, truck and vendor. Too bad you can't get civilian contractors to agree to DADT, really, too bad, because when you piss of enough of us, it's our world, not yours.

Just another love letter from Sui. And no I don't ever plan to work for the government again, so my policy now is Do Ask, Do Tell.





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Jamastiene Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-14-06 03:55 PM
Response to Original message
4. Well, that's fine with me, but what about
the gay people who would like to actually be around them and do that type of work? They should have at least the right to do so if they want to.
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NMMNG Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-20-06 03:13 AM
Response to Original message
5. I suppose we could look at it this way
The fewer gays in the military, the fewer gays getting shipped home in body bags. :shrug:
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cboy4 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-20-06 01:51 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. I friggen hate looking at it that way, but you definitely
have a point.
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terrya Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-20-06 06:12 AM
Response to Original message
6. The military ban is such bullshit.
It's pure homophobia. And yes, it IS a ban..."Don't Ask, Don't Tell" notwithstanding. Gay and lesbian Americans are banned from serving in the military.

It's homophobia...but couched in terms like "unit cohesion". Translation: straight men (and women) are freaked out at the idea of some gay man or lesbian looking at them in the shower. Which, of course, besides being laughably ignorant, is THEIR problem.

20 some industrialized nations, including Israel, allows openly gay men and women to serve in their military. I'd say that Israel certainly doesn't have a problem with "unit cohesion".

This ban is, in the words (and God help me, I'm actually quoting him) former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, who said of the military ban on gay men and lesbians serving in the military, that it's a "bit of an old chestnut". In that one thing, I agree with Cheney (again, God help me). This ban is a ridiculous, sad remnant of World War II. It should be lifted immediately so that gay and lesbian Americans can serve their country, OPENLY.
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JustFiveMoreMinutes Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-20-06 02:19 PM
Response to Original message
8. The 'uncomfortable in the shower' argument
Does anyone else see the irony in that argument?

Poor military guys are reluctant to be naked in front of a gay guy...


are the ones the US wants to send into combat with live ammunition, bombs, and people trying to kill them.

Sorry, but if you're so concerned about being looked at, you really shouldn't be carrying a gun.
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