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Dan Choi –- a West Point graduate, officer in the Army National Guard, and Arabic linguist– has been getting a storm of media attention after he was told by the military that he will be fired from his position because he came out of the closet as a gay man. Yep, Choi “told” that he was gay and now the military is firing him for homosexual conduct because it “negatively affected the good order and discipline of the New York Army National Guard.” Choi has gone public with the military’s decision and one hopes that his impeccable military record will bring the uselessness of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy to light.
Since the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was put in place in 1993 under the Clinton administration, 12,500 gay men and women have been dismissed from the armed forces for not being heterosexual. The law is still in place under President Obama, who during the election stated that he would repeal the homophobic policy which he said was not only a waste of money, but a waste of highly qualified people who are in the military. Granted, Obama did just recently come into office, so he might not have seen repealing the policy as very high on his list of priorities.
According to a note he sent this past January to woman who was fired from the military for being a lesbian, Obama wants to change the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy but he believes it will “take time to complete, partly because it needs congressional action.” However, according to Aaron Belkin at The Huffington Post who originally broke the story, Obama has the power to stop investigations into service members’ sexuality. It wouldn’t repeal the law immediately, but it would stop its implementation and, as Belkin hopes, would make it “much easier to get rid of the law at a later time” when people see gays and lesbians serving in the military openly and without problems.
I shouldn’t have to tell you why this all matters. It should be plainly obvious that firing gay men and women based on their sexuality and not on their performance or military record is disturbingly bad policy to keep in place. In his most recent interview with Rachel Maddow, Choi stated that many of his military peers–from subordinates to people who outranked him–came up to him after he came out and told him that they didn’t care that he was a homosexual. According to another statement Choi made on a West Point LGBT alumni website, there are 65,000 other “selfless” homosexuals serving our country in the military. Do we want to lose that many service men and women? Can we even afford to lose them when we are fighting two wars?
So this is the big question everyone is asking: why hasn’t Obama taken action against this policy yet? He can sign an executive order stopping investigations today. The longer he waits the more trust he is going to lose among gays, lesbians and their supporters.
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Don’t ask don’t tell is SO ridiculous. It would be unacceptable in any other work place where an employer can NOT discriminate based on sexuality. Ugh. Both of my brothers are in the military (marines and navy) and I can guarantee you that they could not care less if one of their company men were gay. They claim it makes these guys and girls uncomfortable but it DOESN’T. The people who have to fire them don’t even want to do it. Being gay is so common place now that the law is just outdated and cruel. These people want to serve their country, instead of roping in people that don’t really want to be there why don’t they make use of the thousands who do.
There is a lot of misunderstanding about the government’s policy on homosexuality re:the military. In the ‘bad old days’ before ‘DADT’ you had MP patrols and undercover CID officers looking for ‘evidence’ of homosexuality (going to the wrong clubs, for example) and a totally punative policy.
The current policy is much more sensible, though it obviously trips buttons for anyone ‘gay friendly’. Essentially one must chose to perform one of three proscribed ‘acts’. Declaring oneself is the first one. As a West Point cadet and, obviously a gay man, Choi knew that and chose to violate it. It is official policy not to investigate anyone of questionable sexuality and only creditable evidence of a given act would be followed and investigated… at the discretion of the local commander.
While it IS an outmoded and unneccesary policy, it is still currently the law of the land. Choi had the option not to declare his love for other men. Flagrantly violating existing policy and complaining when you get slapped down does not earn my sympathy. Had he been ‘busted’ simply enjoying a bit of man-love (the third ‘no-no’ act) in the privacy of his personal life and been outed by someone else I would have a great deal more sympathy for his case.
Irony: The DADT policy is primarily abused by straight men who wish to prematurely terminate their military service.
I can tell you’re a very lawful person, and generally I agree…but, I don’t have respect for stupid laws.
Now, I’m comparing you to a Nazi or a crazy imam, but to show how the laws of the land can be misguided or just flat out wrong, look at Iran or Nazi Germany.
Rosa Parks also had the option to follow the law of the land and remain at the back of the bus. Speaking up is necessary to enact change.
FWIW, my husband is a West Point graduate and active duty officer. He doesn’t care about the sexuality of his fellow soldiers, and neither do the majority of our AD friends.
Let me axe a question? You all are saying, that it shouldn’t matter if a person in the military is gay or not. And I agree for he most part. But, considering that you would have to disrobe to take a shower with a group of man / women, wouldn’t it make you feel uneasy if you knew that one of the people in the shower may be admiring your package? Women can hide their excitement, but what if a guy were to get a boner while he is in the shower with a bunch of other men? Can you imagine! And there would be no way to hide it!
I don’t know about you, but I’d be flattered.
So should we make gay teens take separate showers from their peers after gym class? They aren’t humping me or anything, people get aroused, so what?
So then people should never have to be naked around gay people? I really don’t think most gay people would just stare at their fellow soldiers in the shower. My mom’s argument was that it’s the same reason they don’t allow women in the trenches: distractions. It’s because straight people ALWAYS think that if they’re around a gay person that person is going to be attracted to them. I think straight people who think that need to seriously get over themselves. My gay friend is always just like “Please. Don’t flatter yourself.” Oh and they don’t necessarily shower in a big group like gym class (which is another thing, i’m sure there were gay guys in gym did they get boners for you?) in Afghanistan my brother said for a shower it was like a big thing of water mounted on like a tripod and it would sit out in the sun getting hot then they would go over and pull a lever and the water would run down and it was like a race to get clean. One person at a time. And my other brother lives in an apartment off base, and when he’s not on base he’s on a boat… no group showers there. I assume basic training might have big group showers, i don’t know though we don’t exactly discuss it.
Let’s not forget the biggest argument against this is “Unit Cohesion” same argument made against abolishing segregation in the military.
I am against gay discrimination. I wouldn’t support DADT in my country, but we don’t have an army. It is obvious something should be done about it, but don’t you people expect to much from Obama?
I was watching Fox News some days ago, and there this blond “finance expert” was ranting on how 100 days of presidency already passed and she still sees no improvement to economy, president took a large chunk of tax-payers money and recession is still there!
I am no expert on economy, but I don’t think Obama could have overcome global economical recession in 3 months, an less he is God or Superman (which is almost the same anyways). I kind of feel that gay in the army is problem of the same difficulty.
Ignore pretty much anything Fox News says.
This is about the level you can expect from them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuna2w2pgnM
I think with the economy people are expecting him to wave a magic wand and fix it, but with things like this that can be much more easily “fixed” I don’t think we are expecting too much by asking him to overturn DADT policy.
Maybe Obama hasn’t done anything about the policy yet because he’s dealing with things that are more important- like the failing economy. I don’t live in the US, and I’m glad I don’t, because people have set their expectation too high for Obama- he’s like Nelson Mandela, everyone had high hops for him, but he’s only one man, and he can only do so much to help a country. I think everybody just has to step back and put things into perspective; The economy is failing, there are thousands of people losing their jobs each day, and all people can talk about is why isn’t Obama helping this cause, or another one. He’s only just started his presidency, he has 4 more years to do everything that he said he would. He isn’t a miracle worker and I think everyone has to remember that about him.
Jeremy, you are really cool and I really do like you! You are so freaking funny…. Im sure that you would take it as a compliment. However young boys always have hard ons… but they would have been chastized if they were to get a woody in the shower. And its a little different with grown men. If your in the shower with another man, and Im not talking about in Iraq standing under a water bucket, and you look over and he has a freakin got a loaded gun, DICK, pointing at me, there is gonna be problems! I aint dropping the soap!