Attitudes Shifting On Gays In The Military
Dean
According to a new Zogby poll:
Nearly one in four U.S. troops (23%) say they know for sure that someone in their unit is gay or lesbian, and of those 59% said they learned about the person's sexual orientation directly from the individual, a Zogby International poll of troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan shows.
More than half (55%) of the troops who know a gay peer said the presence of gays or lesbians in their unit is well known by others. According to the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, service members are not allowed to say that they are gay.
More at Zogby International.
I suspect that we won't see a change in policy under the current administration. However, I think it highly likely we will see a change in the next administration, regardless of which party takes control of the White House.
(Via Thought Theater.)
One possible difference: most were women. I don’t recall many gay men, but I can remember a lot of gay women. I’m not sure why that was – possibly the brass were more lenient in that regard to women.
FWIW – I never knew of any issues related to their sexual preferences. As long as a person did their job that was good enough for most of us.
It seems to me that the attitude first appeared to change once "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" became official policy rather than the unofficial one it had always been. Once it became official it seemed more and more people were getting discharged because of their sexual preferences than ever before. I could only guess that more people were using it as a way to get out of the military than ever before.
In the old days, if you were gay, did your job and carried your weight, you were one of us. We neither asked nor told, and as long as the person didn't put themselves into a compromising position their secret remained safe.
I've also got to agree with OCSteve about the women. I mean, seriously, if you played on the womens softball team it was just ass-u-me'd that you didn't date men. ;-> Yes, I'm exaggerating about that last bit but it's not too far off the mark as to how things were.
It’s funny that anyone would believe there are any secrets like that at the company/platoon/squad level. There just are no secrets – you know everything about everyone. You know who is gay, who smacks around their wife, who is a drunk, who gets high and how they beat the piss test. Once one person knows any detail everyone in the company knows it.
The squad leader, platoon sergeant, and First Sergeant damned sure know. They may share that with the platoon leader and CO or not. So the whole policy has been a joke since it was announced.
In that environment, I’ll take a homosexual who knows their job and pulls their weight over a slacker any day. Its not even a serious factor in the equation.
5 ft. 6 in. or so. Great physique. She always volunteered to hump the M-60. (Alright sickos, “hump” here means to carry a heavy weapon in addition to your personal load G*d knows where.) The squad loved her because no one else wanted to carry that miserable SOB. The M-60 is something you rarely need, but when you do you thank G*d you have it (so I hear). The rest of the time it is a huge pain in the butt to carry around, clean, etc.
She also kicked my butt in hand to hand – along with a bunch of other men. There is no doubt in my mind that I would have welcomed her into the same foxhole under any conditions. Woman, lesbian, and general bitch – none of that mattered. She was good, and I would have led or followed her into any battle.
As for "accidentally" letting slip you're gay; it seems to be less prevalent than women "accidentally" getting pregnant as a method of escaping one's service obligation.
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.