On Wednesday, January 10, 2007, President George W. Bush, in his State of the Union Address, stated "...working together to increase the size of the active Army and Marine Corps, so that America has the Armed Forces we need for the 21st century." At the end of 2006, President Bush said something similar about enlarging the U.S. military, which sparked conversation and debates about raising the ban against openly gay men and lesbian women serving in the U.S. Military. The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, currently in place, doesn't allow openly gay people to serve in the U.S. Military. Retired generals and many lawmakers think it is time to remove the ban on gays entering the military. What do you think? http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/123176/is_it_time_to_lift_the_military_ban.html My personal feeling is: Don't Ask, Don't Tell is a bunch of hooie.. Gays should be allowed to serve in the military, just like any other American.
It's a very complex issue. Many Gays do serve our country and do so honorably, yet in secrecy. Don't ask, don't tell was a good compromise. Opening up the military to openly gay individuals would create a never ending plethora of problems in the military. The least of which they need to worry about in these troubling times.
I agree it can be complex.. but, IMO, sexual preference should be one of the least of the military's concerns when selecting individuals for service. I just feel Don't Ask, Don't Tell, while a "fair" compromise to allow gay service, is also unconstitutional, insulting, and discriminatory to those you admit might do honorable service to their country.
They should allow it to be open. They want people to join them, gay or not, so they should take the consequences of that. They want the pros, but are not willing to take the cons.
I wouldn't disagree with that dgridley, but having served myself and having an understanding of those complexities, I don't see it as a possiblity. Usually people only think about the gay person's perspective, without taking into consideration the straight person's perspective, let alone the ramifications (no pun intended).
Well the people only see the surface, why don't they try to see the inner of that person, maybe they were gays or lesbian, but still they are human and what matters most is their capabilities and what are they can contributed for the benefit of the country and the people.
As per usual, I agree with Barry Goldwater. Barry said "You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight." Many military forces allow homosexuals to serve. We're sort of the odd man out on this and we should probably change our policy.
The don't ask don't tell policy has already been done away with...gays are allowed to be in (at least the air force) as long as they are not currently 'active'...which is kinda defeating the purpose of being gay... I have nothing against gays (i have a few friends that are gay)...but I don't approve of them being in the military...for one simple reason... not because they are gay and i'm scared of them...but because there are a great deal of people who are...or who can't stand them...and a lot of these people are in the military. If we (i'm in the Air Force) have to start worrying about if the guy in the shower next to us is checking us out...or soemthing like that while we are deployed...then it hurts the force in general and makes us less capable of doing our duty... it's the same concept pretty much as not allowing women to serve on the front line...most men would let themselves get killed just to protect the woman...or let someone else die to protect that woman...(though it would probably end up working the other way around in a gay's case)...
By that same reasoning, would you ban homosexuals from public high schools? Didn't you shower or change after gym class in high school?
that's no where near the same reasoning...your life doesn't depend on my ability to 'deal with it' in high school...
So you are arguing that little boys should be mature enough to shower together, but that grown men (who are all volunteers) can't be expected to be that mature? Have you ever spent time in a country with co-ed restrooms?
Its a really difficult subject. But I think that it have to be dealt with, one way or another. As long as they are allowed into the army they cannot be restrained. Its a kind of logic that have to work here. When they are allowed into the army they have to be granted all the privileges that the other men gets. Everything else would not be fair. I can see your point in that its not fair for the straight men to have to shower together with a man that checks them out. But that man will be there anyway, maybe 5% of the men are gay. The difference is that now you don`t know who it is. Isn`t that worse than knowing who it is?