I never read any of the posts in this thread, so if this was already covered, I apologize. A few weeks ago, I was voluntold to attend a fact finding seminar at Lejeune....an Army general + SgtMaj + an attorney that works for Secretary Gates are on a military wide tour to collect the facts and deliver a report to Secretary Gates by December. The gist is that they are looking for the impacts on the military if DADT is removed.
What I want to share is that there is an official inbox established that requires a CAC card to provide input.
http://www.defense.gov/dadt If you don’t copy/past/provide input, then don’t complain when you get tasked with running the investigation about the 18 year old country boy decided to take action into his own hands when the military forced him to be roommates with a SanFranHomo.
So don’t delay – post today! Write down the link, and take the time to share your opinions with the panel.
http://www.defense.gov/dadt
Keep in mind – if you are a homo, the law still applies – be careful with your wording. If you are a conservative Catholic that also happens to be a Masshole from the NE with the mouth to prove it – keep it professional, otherwise your post will be deleted, and all will be for not.
If anyone is curious…. as the panel makes its tour across the country, someone else reading this will be tasked with attending this event.
Day 1 was the mass auditorium style presentation. It is set up with all ranks, E1 – O4, and anyone can raise their hand and express their opinion. They set it up so that you can ask questions, and they will provide answers – sort of seems to defeat the purpose. Nevertheless, plenty of people were more than comfortable speaking their mind about the effects regardless of their rank or the fact that plenty of USMC Generals were in the audience.
Day 2 was set up with small groups in similar ranks. I was in a group with company grade officers. There were about 10 people in the group, and this forum seemed to be a lot more productive. My guess is that 8-9 out of the 10 were against the change…but then the one for the change kept the conversation going, prevented a panel of everybody agreeing with each other, and for the most part everyone was respectful of the others opinions.
Here are a few of the talking points.
1. Are you going to listen to us? Or is this a waste of time were you are going to ram this down our throat (no pun intended) anyway? Answer: only congress can change the law. The panel is tasked with providing a report on the impacts to the military. Certain Presidents and members of congress seem to be dead set on changing the law regardless of the effects on the military; however, many other members of congress haven’t made up their mind and they are the ones that will affect the change.
2. Don’t use the military a social experiment. Until society has a whole figures out which way it wants to swing, leave it alone.
3. If we are going to go gay, we need to go gay all the way. The federal government needs to recognize gay marriage, and then the military can also recognize gay marriage. What happens when a gay man joins the military in a state the recognizes his marriage, and then they are transferred to a state that does not. Will he get benefits? Will the gay couple be allowed to live in base housing in a state that recognizes gay marriage, but not in a state that doesn’t? If military recognizes gay marriage, what is to prevent two LCpl’s from saying hey, let’s get married, get BAH and out of the barracks, and then get a divorce once our 4 is up?
4. There is no constitutional right to serve in the military. We discriminate against handicap people, fat people, and a few others. The USMC seems to be all about appearance and how you look in uniform – what happens when to dudes are holding hands in their blues on the way to the ball?
5. Recruiting. Right now we are an all volunteer military, will this change that?
6. The military is the only organization that can force people into situations from which they cannot quite. The military can force people to go on a deployment, fight in a war, take a shower in an open shower, live with multiple roommates who you did not choose. In the discussion with the small group, we seemed to come to the conclusion that it will affect different services differently. The USMC grunts would be impacted the most in a negative way, where as the Air Force would have an easier time dealing with it. The reasons would be funding, availability for housing, facilities, maturity, privacy, culture, etc… Basically on the infantry side, there is ZERO privacy, you don’t go on deployment like the wing with hotel rooms, etc… you are living it up in an open squad bay if you are lucky.
7. What is the difference between forcing a straight man and a gay man to take a shower and room together versus a straight man and a straight women to do the same? Until we can establish a one shower one bathroom concept, our society is not ready for this.
8. We spend so much time taking sex out of the equation for good conduct, morale and discipline. Why are we going to force it back into the equation? Bottom line, everybody in the military is young, healthy and relatively attractive….Living it up in the field on deployment, you happened to be attracted to washboard abs and killers, well you happen to be one as well – why not shack it up for the night.
9. Why are we doing this now? Wars in two countries, etc…. and you want to ram this down our throat now (now pun intened)?
10. Legal issues… just find a 1stSgt and talk to him if you want to know the mess that this is going to create.
11. Discrimination. What happens when the young platoon commander orders someone to take a post that is more dangerous than the other. That Marine happens to be gay. He raises the discrimination flag. Why are we going to allow the military to be the test bed for a civil rights movement at a time like this?
To be fair and balanced….here is the only talking point that I remember from the other side
1. There is an article in the UCMJ that prohibits people from lying. By implementing a don’t ask don’t tell policy, we are forcing people to live a lie. Forget the people that lie about smoking pot, or flat feet, broken bones, or anything else the people didn’t disclose to the military. The DADT policy forces people to join the military and live a lie and break the UCMJ.
Even though these opinions seem to be my own, which I agree with them, these all come from others through military members talking to the panel which I attended. More likely than not, you will see the panel travel through your base over the coming months, and better to be prepared than not. Please take the time to form your own opinion and share them with the panel at
http://www.defense.gov/dadt and then if they come through your base, provide creative thought about what the impacts will actually be.
