Gays in the Military

What is wrong with these people? I’m listening to Elliot in the Morning and this army guy just called up asking what Elliot thought about Obama planning on taking away the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. This is some of what he said:

“Well, ya know, if a drill sergeant is openly gay and, ya know, all flamboyant and stuff and calling me ‘silly goose’ or whatever…I couldn’t take him seriously” cause I mean duh, gay = flamboyancy and effeminacy

“And, ya know, what if we were in the shower, I’d just worry about them like, ya know, looking down at me” It’s amazing how these fears haven’t changed in 50+ years.

“With Don’t Ask Don’t Tell I don’t have to worry about it” Well, as long as YOU’RE comfortable, I guess that’s all that matters.

“If he takes that away, then it’ll just cause trouble and it’ll let openly gay, flamboyant guys into the military, when before they wouldn’t get in” Because obviously gay people can’t be disciplined or strong or whatever

“I’m just not comfortable with knowing”

Then this other guy called up who looked at it from a slightly different perspective:

“Once we know, it affects morale”…“that’s the way the military thinks”…“you’re not gonna change the mentality”

“There’s a lot of ego, a lot of testosterone”…“we see it as a weakness”…“we would exploit the weakness”…“I don’t want another distraction in my platoon”… “that’s why they take away your individuality”… “I want as little distractions as possible”

“You don’t want me showering with 80 females...’cause I’m gonna look” Well, it’s different because you didn’t grow up being around women changing and doing that sort of thing. Guys are around each other in locker rooms since they’re really young, so I don’t think it would be any sort of a big deal. Sure, a guy might steal a glance, but I feel they didn’t sign up to the military to get married, they signed up to serve, and they’re not dumb enough to think that just because a policy changes they’re not gonna be careful. It amazes me but people just don’t know how much more aware gay people are of their surroundings and how they “act”. Gay people grow up their entire lives walking on eggshells because of the dangers that are so prevalent. So somehow I don’t think any gay person, guy or girl, who is really “out” is going to go anywhere near the military. I mean it comes down to survival instinct. A fly isn’t going to happily fly into a den of venomous spiders.

Ok, fair enough, you don’t want gay people to be openly gay? Then straight people shouldn’t be openly straight. Don’t talk about wives, girlfriends, looking at that ass, whatever. If you think it would be such a distraction, if you are SO uncomfortable with your own sexuality, if you are NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE ANY INDIVIDUALITY then it’s only fair if you can’t disclose anything about your own self either. You can’t have your cake and eat it, too. You can only ask of other people what you’re willing to do yourself.

These people think that laws like this being passed will mean that glittery fairies will just take over America and make us a rainbow nation of gayness. But that’s not the case (I mean DUH). The POINT is for EQUALITY. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is DESIGNED to DISCRIMINATE against ONE SPECIFIC group of people. If anything, taking that away will amalgamate all military men EVEN MORE!! And it will raise morale, even if it’s not yours. If these men and women are good enough to FIGHT AND DIE for our country, and to serve alongside you and SAVE your ass if you’re in trouble, then they deserve NOT to be stigmatized, NOT to be discriminated against and NOT to be told they’re not as good or as valuable as their straight counterparts. Hey, you say it’s your mentality to think of anyone non-straight as weak. Well, it looks like to me that YOU need to change YOUR mentality, not for me to be oppressed to make YOU more comfortable. Ignorance is bliss, but it is still ignorance. We cannot expect PROGRESS if we allow ignorance to go on.