Crossposted at Blogging For Michigan.
Last week the House Armed Services Committee had a hearing on the military's policy of don't ask, don't tell. As you know, it's the policy that says that if the military finds out that you're gay, you will be dishonorably discharged.
I'm going to let the homophobes that still support this outdated policy in on a little secret, a secret so shocking that when revealed, America is going to have to remove the policy because they'll see how incredibly stupid it is.
You guys ready? You want to know the secret? Go below the fold to find out.
Alright, everybody, here's the secret: Gay people are already serving in the US military. And the straight troops know who they are. And we don't care.
Sorry guys, we just don't care. When we're at war, there's so much stuff on our mind (getting killed, your loved one at home, the a-hole they put in charge of you, the crappy food), that we don't care too much about who the other guy is sleeping with. And even if we did, it'd be little more than icing on the cake of all the b.s. that's involved with going to war.
There's a few hypothetical situations that homophobes like to bring up when they say we do care. Let's go over them.
- Gay people can't work as professional servicemembers.
The homophobes like to pretend that if gay people serve openly, the entire military will turn into a gay pride parade. Nevermind that once you enter basic, you're trained to walk the same way (drill and ceremony), talk the same way (civilians don't understand half the military jargon we spew out), and to do all of your duties in a military manner. Both the gay and straight Soldiers I've served with have done a fine job of doing all of that.
And I'm not going to say all gay members of the armed forces do a good job. I haven't met all of them. But I do know that the ones I've served with have done an outstanding job. On every deployment I've been on, they met the standard and did their jobs professionally. Some were more squared away than me.
- Gay people make straight servicemembers uncomfortable in certain situations.
During the hearing last week, the homophobes went into certain hypotheticals, such as communal showers and huddling together for body warmth while in the field. For the latter, I'll tell those people that there's been times when I've had to do that with women. Sometimes it's just cold so you huddle up. My fiance will be glad to know that I kept my hands to myself. For the former, I have the same policy for gay people as I do for straight people in the public showers. Don't look at my junk. Period. I don't care if you're attracted to guys or girls, keep the eyes above the waist. You do that we'll get along just fine. It's not about gay or straight, it's about privacy.
- It's not Christian!
Media and pop-culture has made an image of Soldiers out to be noble choir boys who never, ever, think a bad thought (thanks, Steven Spielberg and Toby Keith)! But the truth is that many of us (even the Christians) drink, smoke, have pre-marital sex, and listen to really loud music. We often act in ways that would get us thrown out of a church. We also have servicemembers of different faiths, including (gasp!) Muslims and Atheists. We're not God's Army. We're the US Army. Learn the difference.
- The military is homophobic, therefore gay people shouldn't be allowed to serve.
Most of those I've served with couldn't care less if gay people are serving in the military. But there are a few who do. And what of it? If the military took consideration of your feelings before they went to war, they'd put up a Four Seasons at every Forward Operating Base instead of having us sleeping in tents with cots. They'd ask for your consent before deploying you. But we all know that's not happening anytime soon.
Of course the homophobes are scared that if gay people serve openly, the military will have to teach tolerance towards gay people. News flash: They already have a "don't harass" policy. Meaning it's official military policy to not attack someone for the possibility of being gay.
But that's what the real argument boils down to for them. If we have a military that's tolerant towards gay people, we might have people saying "If they can take a bullet for our country, why can't they get married? Why can't they have protection from being fired from their civilian job? Why can't we treat them as equals?"
And the homophobes don't want that, do they?
Don't ask, don't tell was a bad policy for gay people who wish to serve their country. Yet the beauty of it is that it allowed a way for gay people to serve in the military, and make its own policy obsolete. Every hypothetical and stereotype that the homophobes want to toss out against allowing gay people to serve openly has been debunked by gay people who have served their country honorably and maintained a professional standard for the military. There are no gay pride parades, most servicemembers couldn't care less if the people they serve with are gay, and the military already has protections against harassing servicemembers for even the possibility of being gay.
So let's just take the next step and end the ban altogether. It's not only outdated for our times, it's been made obsolete by the military.