What people seem to be missing is that gay men and women already serve in the US Military. They are not allowed to come out and talk about their sexuality. They are not allowed to talk about their partners. What the repeal does is allow gay men and women who serve in the military to not be afraid of speaking out about their lives. Very simple. The repeal does not mean swarms of gay men and women are going to enlist in the military. The repeal does not mean gay men and women are going to be allowed to act inappropriately towards their straight counterparts. People are just so misinformed.
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I agree. A lot of straight men who often happen to lean conservative, seem to think that if gay men who they already serve with were allowed to be out, suddenly they would find those same conservative men just irresistibly sexy and wouldn't be able to help themselves. And this makes total sense to them.
The one thing that bothers me is this thing about how all men who spout anti-gay hate are closeted gay men themselves. As I said on the blog, the trouble with that is that it places the responsibility for the hate on gay men's shoulders and removes the reality that the majority of men who commit acts of hate and violence against gay men are straight. It's a kind of sideways and probably unintentional victim blaming, and I really think we need to be careful about implying that the only kinds of men who spout hate are gay -- and that in a weird way makes acting hatefully a closeted gay quality (therefor making gay men responsible for their own oppression, rather than straight men). Not accurate.
The president is the top of the military chain of command.
There is no requirement that the president be heterosexual.
Then how can the ban on gays in the military be imposed if it excludes the top of the pyramid?
It seems to me that we must either: 1) eliminate DADT immediately on the basis that it is unequally applied, or 2) amend the Constitution to add a requirement that to be president you must be heterosexual. This would provide immediate removal of any sexual orientation policy until/unless a constitutional amendment becomes law (good luck with that).
Instead of "liberals" being forced to press for equality, it would force the "cons" to mount a large, long, expensive, and likely futile campaign. One more thing off our to-do list!