What this is about though, is that gays serve openly in the UK and have for ten years now. And their fundies had the same arguments as ours are having now, and everything they said, never materialized.
Large-scale resignations from the UK armed forces were widely expected in some quarters, when the ban on gays was lifted - but in practice they did not materialise.
At least one British army brigadier publicly resigned in protest, citing "strongly held moral and military convictions" but most observers were surprised at how smoothly the new law - which was forced on the UK government by the European Court of Human Rights - was implemented...
British Security Minister Lord Alan West, a former head of the Royal Navy, told the Associated Press in July 2009 that allowing gays to serve openly was "much better".
"For countries that don't do that - I don't believe it's got anything to do with how efficient or capable their forces will be. It's to do with prejudices, I'm afraid," he said.
I find it appalling that we, America, are supposed to be the land of the free, a place where everyone is equal and has civil rights and equal protection under the law, and yet the Europeans right now have surpassed us in civil liberties by leaps and bounds. For godsake, Portugal has allowed gay marriage. Conservative, Catholic Portugal! Of all places. And we're the United States, and we're a bunch of fucking asshats over here apparently. I suppose that's what happens when you found a country with Puritans. Their descendants are uptight assholes who have to meddle in their neighbor's business to make sure they're doing what some deity or other wants.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." --CS Lewis
Amazing isn't it? Our own American Military has a skyrocketing Rape Stat, that is never addressed. I will say that 99 percent of the time, its man on woman--which is to say, Heterosexual Rape AND a percentage of those rapes are by men who seek to *straighten out, women they perceive are gay--you know, because nothing helps clarify why Homosexuality is inherently bad like full on, brutal sexual assault.
ReplyDeleteI personally served in the military during the early 90s. I was there when Bill Clinton implemented the new Sexual Harassment regulations and I had to live through the aftermath, because believe me when I tell you it got way worse before it even pretended to get better. And the one group of people that I found to be consistently trustworthy, kind, and diligent in their work and in their comportment were GAY MEN. yep, there it is, I said it.
I counted on more than a couple GAY MEN to be the boy scouts that the recruiting posters were always trying to sell.
Women were never given the chance to compete on equal footing with the men. So that all the special shit that had to be done in our presence was resented, and provided the perfect excuse and example as to why women should not be there and didn't deserve fair treatment, much less humane treatment in uniform.
Gay men take that a step further. Because they are to some degree undetectable. For the insecure straight male, Gay Men have the perfect disguise.
Gay Women are even scarier. They being in the baracks, have direct access to other women and in *Insecure Straight Man world, that is an unfair application to the unofficial, unwritten, Sexual EEO Program in which they [men], and they alone are supposed to have exclusive rights to all split tails on the base--dont ya know.
I find it ironic, that the current military allows a criminal element into the ranks that Rapes and Stalks it's female members, and then somehow thinks it can project this perverse dementia on GAY MEN. Very much like the Catholic Church in many ways in terms of stupidity and irony.
And ultimately, what it has always come down to in the end, is all about Authenticity of Citizenship. This started with Racial Minorities, then Women and then Religious Minorities, and its still going on to some degree, though its mostly focused currently on Gay Men.
Being able to serve in the military is ultimately the opportunity to be a Patriotic Hero. When you are allowed to openly serve regardless of your nonWhiteness, your lack of a penis, or the fact that you are not Christian, or Straight--Its very difficult for Reich Wingers to openly criticize you as an individual for your alleged *sin as a Military Member or a Vet.
An Attack On you as a [pick a minority status] is an attack on your Volunteerism as a Patriot and potentially as a Hero.
So the only way to avoid that is to cut you off at the pass and deny you the right to serve--and if you are not fit to serve, then you are not fit to be a citizen either.
Its all very pat.
My dad was a Marine, he tried to get me to go into the military, but I figured I'd laugh at the drill sargent at the wrong time, and find myself in a heap of shit. I find things that are very serious, amusing as hell half the time.
ReplyDeleteI have read about the problem that the military has with rape, and how they try to sweep it under the rug. Your analysis of it is even better than anything I've read about it. Well, because what I've read is for the mainstream (see really conservative but called liberal) press, and so of course they can't say what you've just said. That wouldn't be PC if they did.
Most Journalists have no fucking clue about the military in that context at all. Even the ones embedded in combat missions don't get a lot of it. So its an unfair expectation. And anyone still active duty would have to be very careful about expressing such sentiments. For example--just look at some of the stories being printed about Hassan Nidal--the Ft Hood Shooter. Many press agents cannot distinguish between normal military comportment and dangerous red flags--they don't understand how bad people and dangerous people and incompetent people are enabled in the military--by the system. You would get more realistic, if exaggerated view of this from movies like stripes than you would most journalistic pieces mostly because they simply have no point of reference, and its not PC to criticize the military right now in this time of war {overcompensation for the idiocy surrounding the Vietnam War}
ReplyDeleteIf you type in the word, Lesbian in a search on my blog--the first story that comes up will interest you, in the vein of this conversation--actually the first two.
ReplyDeleteAnti-Gay Regs have been used to enforce a Sexist Paradigm in the military against women for---ever. Any women who doesn't adhere to whatever that unit's perception of minimum feminine traits is in danger of being declared a Lesbian and could be discharged. This was especially true in the 1990s and before.
Also effeminate Men or suspected gay men have been raped by straight men in order to teach them a lesson. These people have a terrible time getting their benefits through the VA even if they were not discharged as GAY. I also know people who became Transexuals after discharge--they too have issues at the VA--so this gay thing has long term rammifications for military members, especially those who are labeled gay or who are gay or transexual.
I guess patriotism and heroism only count if you are in the missionary position.
I actually don't know how to find your blog SEC, as when I click on your profile, I get a "this profile is not public" page.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to leave a link to your blog here, I'll visit it :)