Homosexuality is incompatible with military service

MYTH:
Openly gay and lesbian military personnel undermines
the efficacy of the armed forces.

TRUTH:

Openly gay and lesbian military personnel undermines the efficacy of the armed forces to the same extent that openly straight personnel do.

Unfortunately, the current "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policies of the USA military prohibits anyone who "demonstrate(s) a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts". This bans any homosexual or bisexual person from disclosing his or her sexual orientation or from speaking about any homosexual relationships, including marriages or other familial attributes, while serving in the United States armed forces. Woah!

Let us take a little trip down military lane:

The forcible taking of women’s sexual choice has been used as a way of attacking one’s enemies since ancient times. Often, the troops are specifically told to rape women, (as it was with American troops in the Vietnam War) as a way of demoralising the people who were being invaded. In Bosnia-Herzegovnia, rape has been used as a way of ‘ethnic cleansing’. So what are the steps taken to prevent these acts from occurring? Far less than the steps to prevent gays and lesbians from serving openly in the armed forces!

We ask this:

How can a gay military officer who declares he/she is in a loving, committed and mutual relationship be almost immediately discharged when clearly, it is heterosexual "behaviour" that perpetrates far more readily than the number of homosexual people in the armed forces?

Such discrimination toward personnel should surely be extended to the culturally destructive heterosexual variation. We can't help but feel that anti-gay polities stem from misinformation of "gay behaviour" and what is perceived as "homosexual conduct".

The resources to keep such policies in place is beyond comprehensible. Since 1994 almost 12, 000 USA military persons have been discharged due to homosexuality at a cost of almost $400 million. These are people with specialised fields of expertise, who would otherwise be of invaluable service if not for the fact of their sexual orientation. Furthermore, there are are over 1 million gay veterans in the USA who are without the legal spousal benefits that they should be entitled to.

Thankfully, most of the western world have military policies that allow gay men and lesbians to serve openly, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Switzerland.

Thank goodness for common sense!

Further reading:

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Recommended viewing:

A Call to Duty
A documentary that looks at the army's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy through the experience of one person who had to go back into "the closet" in order to reenlist following the events of 9/11.