As long as we are most concerned with assembling the best and brightest, I don't care...

but there's a difference, regarding the health of the unit and in the law, between reading the Bible and sticking your reproductive organs where another man evacuates his bowels.

 

 

We've already seen cases where females in the military have launched lawsuits claiming sexual harassment, and ruined careers despite there being no evidence and no conviction.  So saying that some gay person at some point might yell "Hey! I didn't make captain because everyone knows I'm gay!" will never happen is wrong.  It will happen.

 

I don't support gays being forced out of the military--Baron von Steuben was gay, after all--but I think DADT is as much for the gays' protection as anything else.  If a gay man wants to queen out or a lesbian wants to dyke out, and flaunt their homosexuality, other soldiers may not appreciate it and retalitate.  Sock party comes to mind.  Yes, it would be wrong and anyone who pulled something like that should (and likely would) be court-martialed, but I think it would be better just to leave it alone.  Better to keep your mouth shut and be suspected as gay than open your yap and remove all doubt.

 

And no, I do not see this as a civil rights issue.  People of color can't exactly hide it; they were born that way.  Nor should they.  Homosexuality is a choice.  You do not have to be gay, and if you are, you don't have to join the military.  It is a choice.  I believe if people want to be gay, that's fine, and if they're patriotic enough to join up, more power to them.  But to say that it's something they have no control over is ridiculous.  It's also something they're going to have to take responsibility for.

 

Will a security clearance still be denied to a soldier that is gay? 

 

If the current policy is "Don't ask, don't tell" will the new policy require that a gay or a straight person declare his/her sexual preference? 

 

If that sexual preference is not delcared how will a suit be brought alleging sexual descrimination? 

 

If a "captain" sues over an promotion allegedly denied due to his/her sexual orientation, how will that officer then be able to lead and command respect of his/her troops? 

 

 

Wait til you don't see such lawsuits.

Wait until you want to eat your words.

 

BTW, they already sued before.

 

www.nytimes.com/1993/07/28/us/homosexuals-in-service-sue-over-clinton-s-compromise.html

 

 

1) No.  That would merit a lawsuit, and should.  (Not saying it isn't possible, mind.  The IDF for awhile didn't allow gamers to have top secret clearance, because they didn't consider gamers to be all right in the head.)

2) It shouldn't.  It's none of the armed forces' business what is done in the bedroom, so long as it isn't a security risk or it doesn't impede work performance or good order and discipline--for instance, a lesbian captain having a relationship with a fellow lesbian, who is a sergeant.

 

3) Good question!

 

4) He/she won't be able to lead her troops effectively at all.  Most military men and women I have known would consider that being a damn crybaby.  Unless it can be absolutely proven that the promotion was turned down solely due to sexual preference (which would end a lot of careers), the captain in question would lose a lot of respect.  I believe this would be true as well if a female captain was passed over for promotion for other reasons and then decided to sue, claiming her superiors were misogynists.  I couldn't respect someone like that, and in fact would find it pretty tough to even be in the same unit as her.

 

If you look at ancient Greece, then history has shown that a homosexual men can be shaped into an effective fighting unit. And it's worth noting that fighting in a phalanx is quite a brutal way of warfare.

 

Homosexual men can be effective soldiers. The larger number of effective soldiers you can field the better your army can fight.  The better your army can fight, the better your odds are of winning a war.

 

 

 

 

 

Then the problem is lawyers frivolously sueing the army and not people being openly gay in the army.