From Fox Nation:
A special Defense Department working group appointed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates has recommended that the military should "expressly prohibit" heterosexuals from using separate showers, bathrooms and bunking facilities from homosexuals when the repeal of the law banning homosexuals from the military goes into effect.
Seriously?
Well, I give them actual points to not pussy footing around the subject with euphemisms like "facilities adjustment." Because when it's stated so plainly and not merely alluded to, it really does sound ridiculous to most sane people.
The article is a link to a CNS (Conservative News Service) article.
Straight Troops Must Shower With Gays, Says DOD Working Group--‘Gay Men Have Learned to Avoid Making Heterosexuals Feel Uncomfortable or Threatened in Situations Such as This’
Yes, we've learned to control our overwhelming desire to salaciously leer at or rape any and all men in the shower rooms of gyms and schools across the country. Isn't that just remarkable?
Now, I don't wish to be mean, but straight guys? I hate to break it to you, may not be as irresistible as you imagine.
There may be some news:
The working group also has recommended that commanding officers be left with the authority to exempt individuals from using the same showers, bathrooms and living facilities as homosexuals, but only on a "case-by-case" basis.
It's a strange wording. Who is being granted the "exemption?" Is it the gay guy who will graciously be "exempted" from using the same shower because someone else objects?
Or will it be the straight guy who, because he gets the willies about showering with a gay guy will have to have his needs accommodated?
Option 1 would be discriminatory. Option 2 would seem to be a ridiculously picayune thing for a commander to have to concern himself with at the time of war.
Now, I hate to read too much into a nutbag site, but there does seem to be some truth to the idea that ground level commanders will have discretion on how they go about "handling problems." This was confirmed in the press conference when the report was announced.
A guiding principle of how to handle these "problems" will likely not including a mandate the solutions be non-discriminatory.
There was no non-discrimination language in the bill that was passed, and the Working Group's has recommended against instituting one, from the report itself:
Throughout the force, rightly or wrongly, we heard both subtle and overt resentment toward "protected groups" of people and the possibility that gay men and lesbians could, with repeal, suddenly be elevated to a special status in the event of repeal, we do not recommend that the Department of Defense place sexual orientation alongside race, color, religion, sex, and national origin as a class eligible for various diversity programs, tracking initiatives, and the Military Equal Opportunity program complaint resolution processes.
It is worrisome that discrimination is likely to still be an option at the command level. Moreover, gay troops that experience may in fact, be left with have no recourse to object to it or have their discriminatory circumstances addressed.
In truth, we won't really know how it plays out until the new DOD regulations are revealed. The DOD certainly is not mandated to follow the Working Group's recommendation and may include sexual orientation with their existing non-discrimination protection directives. We'll see.
My compatriot indiemcemopants just diaried the specter of continued discrimination in the National Guard. Check it out.