The current presidential administration offers a host of topics to stir controversy and raise critique. From healthcare to the closing of Guantanamo Bay, there is never a short supply of issues to debate. On a lot of the issues, there is cause for wariness if not outright disapproval. However, there is one issue that I believe is a step in the right direction. President Obama is pushing to remove the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for serving military personnel. This was an act put into operation in 1993, whose purpose was to prevent serving military personnel from being openly gay (whatever that means). Now that President Obama is pushing to repeal this legislation, there are a lot of military officers and administrators that are not too giddy about the repeal of this act. CNN reports that one marine officer is pushing to have homosexuals and heterosexuals room separately.
It is not difficult to understand why a lot of the military personnel are not too excited for the removal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The military is the most hardcore, adrenalin pumping experience that a person can be a part of. It is also an establishment rich in tradition. Therefore, in places like this, the old stereotypes and prejudices against homosexuals have not been so quick to vanish. Another problem is that the military equates homosexual men with female mannerisms and mentality; women trapped in men’s bodies. It makes some nervous and others outright disgusted.
“I would not ask our Marines to live with someone that’s homosexual if we can possibly avoid it,” Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway told a Web site in an interview posted Friday. “And to me that means we’ve got to build [barracks] that have single rooms.”
Outside of pushing for outright banning of homosexuals from the military or keeping the old policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell”, the marine in the CNN article decided to push for the next best thing, which in his opinion is segregation. Does anybody else see the problem with this? Before you answer that question, may I please point out that up to this point, chances are that the Marines have already been rooming with gay individuals. Not to mention that segregation has already been outlawed by the government and generally frowned upon by society.
Conway told the site Military.com that he would “want to preserve the right of a Marine that thinks he or she wouldn’t want to do that — and that’s the overwhelming number of people that say they wouldn’t like to do so.”
This is a wonderful quote. I want you to try it’s application. Tomorrow, go to your respective schools and workplaces and make a proposition. Tell your manager/dean that a large majority of employees/students agree that they do not want to work with blacks/Arabs/Jews etc… Please email me the result of your brilliant proposal so that I can post it on this website. Just because a large group of people want things a certain way doesn’t mean that the particular desire is ethical, morally right, or legal. Discrimination is Discrimination regardless of the way you dress it up.
The only real change attributed to the removal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy is that gay soldiers would no longer have to hide the fact that they are gay. This doesn’t mean that the men will start walking around with tank tops, making out in the barracks, and sexually assaulting the marines. Even homosexuals have to follow military code. It just means that they no longer have to hide the fact that they are gay. The repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy is another step towards equality. The individual serving is a soldier first and foremost. Sexual orientation has no effect on the quality and dedication of a soldier. Homosexuals, like heterosexuals, are putting their lives on the line for this country and the freedoms that this nation offers. ALL soldiers deserve our respect and deepest gratitude.
ModSociety 