Americans think military should allow gays to serve.
By on Feb 2nd, 2007 at 11:52 am
Americans think military should allow gays to serve.
55 percent of Americans “think gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military,” according to a new Harris Interavtive poll. 19 percent said gays and lesbians should serve “only if they keep their sexual orientation a secret,” while 18 percent said they should “not be allowed to serve in the military at all.”
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Uh oh, ya’ll slipped up and let everyone know what a clusterf*ck Iraq is, now “the gays” won’t want to sign up for the slaughter. :(
February 2nd, 2007 at 11:57 amWhat, are we running out of Puerto Ricans and Mexicans?
February 2nd, 2007 at 11:58 amWhat, the 28% ers found out a way to “deal” with gay people?
February 2nd, 2007 at 11:58 amProof that, given time, the old & regressive attitude towards gay Americans will change towards something approaching enlightenment.
February 2nd, 2007 at 11:59 amSorry to be a smartass, but, maybe Iraq would be more peaceful if they were exposed to more musicals, interior decorating, and fasion design, just sayin’
February 2nd, 2007 at 11:59 amRarely is a precise price tag put on bigotry. But that’s just what happened when a University of California commission totaled the costs associated with the Pentagon’s indefensible and staggeringly counterproductive “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding gays in the American military.
For the details, see:
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:00 pm“The Cost of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Gays should stay the hell out of the military. They can get murdered in the military. See the movie “Soldier’s Girl” about one such murder.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:05 pm#7 – Spoken like someone who’s got issues with gay people. We all know what that means. . . . .
Tom3, stop checking me out! I’m taken!
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:07 pmIt’s okay for gays to die in a war but they can’t marry and an 18 year old to get shot up but can’t have a beer. But hey if your a foreigner you can become a citizen and join our all inclusive country….unless you’re gay….or a non-christian heathen….etc…
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:11 pmYeah, as if there were no gays right now.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:12 pmLOL Democrat Soldier. Don’t ask and I won’t tell.
The military is not a good place to go for a career or college right now. Even if you go into the Navy or Air Force, you can still end up driving a truck in Iraq. I don’t want any more kids to end up dead in Iraq.
I’m against recruiting gays for the military…unless they’re Republican closet cases. We need more Republicans in the front lines, since they support the war so much.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:15 pmTom3,
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:15 pmAll overweight people should stay out too. I mean look what happened in “Full Metal Jacket” and cyborgs should stay out too. Just watch the movie Cyborg and you will know what I mean. I love to equate reality with films. Wanna movie swap Tom3?
Does this mean Jason Man Handler can sign up?
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:16 pmI can see a new book on the Horizon:
“Lights out at the barracks”
By Sharon and Holden Dicks.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:20 pmI got news for you gays have already served n the military. They have also died for their country. I was in the navy in the 70’s when the NIS (now NCIS) had 2 jobs 1) find drugs 2) find gays. thankfully they were pretty bad at both. I am not gay but, I knew several of my fellow sailors (male and female) were. The redneck homphobics were too busy looking for swishy sterotypical behavior and were clueless. That’s probably also why the NIS was so bad at finding them too.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:25 pmhttp://savannahnow.com/node/221011
Ya f*cked up boys, ya trusted us.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:25 pmAmericans think military should allow gays to serve.
Should read-
Americans think military should allow gays to serve first.
Then it would be okay for them to serve as long as they took the first enemy bullets. Maybe we could use the gays like decoys to draw the fire of the enemy thusly giving away their position.
The gays, they would either kill the enemy or fluff their pillows to death.
*BlahBlahBlah.
You sound like you got your mouth full of cock or pussy.
You must be gaywad too right?
Off to Iraq you go you gayass guinea pig, we`ll let you draw fire to give away an enemy position.
It`s all good, you would probably die from AIDS anyways being gay and all. So it is a really noble thing you are doing for your country by signing up and becoming insurgent sniper bait.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:27 pmdlet, you really need to see “Soldier’s Girl” because it REALLY HAPPENED. An army guy got beaten to death because his squadmates didn’t like his choice of girlfriend. (transsexual Calpurnia Addams).
Unlike your shoot-em-up fantasies, this really happened.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:28 pm#11 – Tom3, I think I see where you’re coming from.
When I served, it was from ‘86-90, right before the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. I was disturbed by the number of guys & gals that would get caught messing around in the barracks or on base. It wasn’t hard to keep that activity where it could be ignored!
Had there been “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” while I was in, I would have accepted the appointment to West Point and probably be in Iraq as I type!
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:30 pmWe need all the help we can get.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:31 pm“Allowing gays in the military is a slippery slope that would clearly lead to Man-on-Dog.”
-Rick Santorum
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:37 pmProof that, given time, the old & regressive attitude towards gay Americans will change towards something approaching enlightenment.
Comment by Democrat Soldier
From the article:
Forty-six percent of respondents said they oppose the policy, unchanged from a Harris poll in 2000, and 36% said they favor the policy, compared with 34% in the previous poll.
So, less than half oppose “don’t ask don’t tell”. And the number that support DADT has increased, not decreased.
Don’t seem like that much of a change. Ain’t subjective poll reading fun!
Here is a concept. Be professional. Don’t discuss your sexuality. Period.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:39 pmSantorum is a moron, and I’m so glad he’s not a Senator.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:40 pmUnlike your shoot-em-up fantasies, this really happened.
Comment by Tom3
It showed newly trained marines, one group naked with others watching, fighting each other with mats wrapped around their arms, and one being kicked in the face after refusing to remove the padding and fight barefisted. “When one falls, a man in a fancy dress surgeon’s outfit – allegedly an NCO – kicks him in the face, leaving him unconscious”, according to the Telegraph.[citation needed] The victim, according to the BBC, said “It’s just marine humour”.[citation needed] The marine who leaked the video said “The guy laid out was inches from being dead”. Under further investigation, the marines had just returned from a six month tour of Iraq, and were in their ‘cooling down’ period, in which they spend two weeks at a naval base before they are allowed back into society. The man who suffered the kick to the head did not press charges.
They never made this into a movie but it really happened. So I guess from this single incident (since your arguement ofers only one) anyone that doesn’t want to kicked in the face during hazing shouldn’t join the Armed Services.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:51 pmAnd hacker bob–don’t discuss your family either?
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:52 pmAnd hacker bob–don’t discuss your family either?
Comment by JJ
I do not discuss sex or sexual orientation. that type of conversation does not belong in ANY workplace. Refering to your significant other is one thing, wearing it as a badge is something else. I have worked in many places, outside of the Marine Corps where men that were gay wnated to make sure EVERYONE knew thay were gay. What purpose does that serve? I do not make it a point the ensure everyone knows I am straight.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:58 pmdlet, you’re obviously a repuke. so what are you doing in here?
Sign up or shut up. Get the hell out of here and go to Iraq.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:59 pmSounds like Hacker Bob wants gays to shut up and go back into the closet. Another Repuke moron, I guess.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:01 pmI’m a Vietnam era vet and I’m openly gay, now, and living the lifestyle. I’d rather have my back covered by a sincere homosexual who is not afraid of his real feelings, than an insincere homophobic who is. The debate is ridiculous and ignorant. “Methinks thou doth protest, too much”, is the answer that always ends the question.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:02 pmComment by Who me gay? Never!! It`s a SIN!
Is that you Ted Haggard?
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:02 pmnice to see that there are enlightened Americans.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:05 pmComment by Liberal in New Mexico
This I can agree with.
Comment by Tom3
Nope, I just don’t think a person should have to blatantly advertise their sexuality. I serve with gays and lesbians. Some that have confided in me what their sexual orientation is. I could care less. And most of them agree that the best way to make it a non issue is for those that are gay to not rock the boat too much at first. That is, if DADT is lifted.
Bugger who you want. Not my business, until you make it my business.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:10 pmNo. No. No. The military is not a place to seek relationships with other men (I know their true intentions). Again, I say NO!!!!!!!!!
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:13 pmNice! So, at last, the Cheney daughter can serve!
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:15 pmDaryll,
Thats right you need to seek out gay relationships at church. After all while you’re all down on your knees, it might as well be for something worthwhile.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:18 pmDaryll,
Kind of like 13 guys hanging out together and washing each others feet? (read: Jesus and the 12 apostles)
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:19 pmI guess Daryll would rather seek his “relationships with other men” at his “Promise Keepers” meetings or maybe some other “all-male faith-based” group excursions.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:25 pm(Yes, Daryll, we all know *their* “true intentions”.)
Daryll shows up, right on cue. Well, actually a little late.
Daryll, what makes you believe gay men and women go into the military thinking it’s a meat market? Don’t they go in just like everyone else, to serve their country?
Get a clue already…
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:26 pmI served in the navy in the late 80’s, early 90’s. On a cruiser you get to know everyone pretty well. There were a few gays in the crew and a lot of non-gay, “but we are at sea”, groping. The gays were not amongst the gropers though. As long as folks do their jobs and respect the folk they work with, why give a sh*t?
Texas Juice
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:35 pmGays should be allowed to serve openly in the military, but as long as Bush is using soldiers as cannon fodder in his wars for oil, most Gays will pass on joining up till Bush is no longer the president.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:36 pmThose who want to serve their country, should be allowed to serve their country. I can’t think of anyone better to be in our armed forces than those who want to be there. Doesn’t matter if they’re gay or straight.
A note to the TP moderator: Posts by this person “Comment by Who me gay? Never!! It`s a SIN!! — February 2, 2007 @ 12:27 pm” are very offensive. The anti-gay rhetoric filled with hate do not further the discussion in any way. Frankly, because this is a progressive website, I don’t understand why you would allow such comments to be posted without censor. You wouldn’t allow these comments to be posted to this site if they were anti-black, anti-Jew, anti-any minority. What gives?
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:59 pmA note to the TP moderator: Posts by this person “Comment by Who me gay? Never!! It`s a SIN!! — February 2, 2007 @ 12:27 pm†are very offensive. The anti-gay rhetoric filled with hate do not further the discussion in any way. Frankly, because this is a progressive website, I don’t understand why you would allow such comments to be posted without censor. You wouldn’t allow these comments to be posted to this site if they were anti-black, anti-Jew, anti-any minority. What gives?
Comment by Earthling — February 2, 2007 @ 1:59 pm
You find that specific comment offensive? He’s telling the truth. If you find it offensive, have a talk with God (prayer). He’ll tell you to read the bible, and you’ll find his response to homosexuality. I guess you believe that God’s comments about homosexuality are offensive. What’s offensive about pointing out sin? Is it offensive to tell a murderer, adulterer, stealer, an individual full of envy or fornicator that they’ve sinned? I think not. Remove satan from your life, now!
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:16 pmEarthling,
ThinkProgress’ policy on comments has many of us scratching our head.
Certain rather inoffensive posts are censored, some very offensive posts aren’t -we still haven’t been able to discern a pattern.
Also, acist comments and slurs have been allowed to stay in the threads. Some are vile beyond the pale. I don’t know what to think other than it might be a good way of showing what Bush cultists are really like.
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:20 pmI rescind my previous comment. I actually read, “Who me gay? Never!! It`s a SIN’s”, blog and it is offensive. Whoever you are, blogger, you have sinned. You have committed an unrighteous act (hate) that is equivalent to homosexuality (sin). Cease and desist your foolish ways.
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:28 pmDaryll, here’s what I believe: You are a latent homosexual so thoroughly ashamed of yourself that you show up here any time there is a post regarding gay people. In order to satisfy your deep hunger to ignore what you truly are, you come here spewing your bible crap, god crap, jesus crap. Like you, it’s boring. Does the name “Haggard” ring a bell? You go ahead and read your bible and believe what you want to believe. I personally (as well as tens of millions of others) do not believe in a hateful “god.” As far as “God’s comments about homosexuality,” please do tell us all how God personally spoke to you and made those comments. The bible, Daryll, was written by men. Not Jesus. Not God. Your belief that God took pen in hand and literally wrote the bible is comical at best. You believe being gay is a sin, hence your shame and disgust with yourself. Most people believe being gay is just part of life, like being straight. Your citing murder, adultery, and theft in the same breath as being gay is also laughable. Murder and theft are crimes. Adultery is a bad decision that usually bears bad consequences for the adulterer. Being gay is not a crime nor a bad decision with bad consequences, so please do not place gay in the same category as murder, theft and adultery. Sadly, Daryll, the one who needs to remove satan from his life is you. I hope you do it before you die. If you don’t, then, in your belief, you know where you’ll be going, the fiery pit of hell. Ouch, that’s hot!
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:31 pmI just love it when people say “Keep your sexuality to yourself!” and then go on about how they’ve got a wife and children and hold hands in public and make out in public. How blind can you be to hypocrisy of that level?!?
While I was in the army, I knew exactly one person who was “Oh, didja know I was gay? I am, sweetie!” Needless to say, he wasn’t long for the service.
Every single straight person I spoke to while I was in the Army just didn’t care if gay people were in the service.
I just wish all the straight guys I knew didn’t constantly talk about scoring the night before, or how much tail they got, or how many women they slept with. THAT was shoving their sexuality in my face!
Basically, the people that complain about “shoving your sexuality in my face” are the ones shoving THEIR sexuality in other peoples faces. Go figure. . . .
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:35 pmDaryll, don’t forget all the other things that are considered a “sin” in the Bible:
A woman touching anything when she’s menstruating: SIN! Burn her!
A child who “curses” their parents: SIN! Kill the child!
Abraham married Sara (his sister): NOT A SIN! Good to go.
Yeah, the Bible sure is straight forward in what’s sinful and what’s not sinful. Why don’t you read it sometime?
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:42 pmI hear you can look up in the book of lists, all the scriptures which are NEVER read in church. Simply horrid and disgusting stuff.
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:49 pmComment by Democrat Soldier
As it relates to post #46.
I do not hold hands with or kiss my wife in the workplace. That is not the place for it. I do not discuss my family in the workplace either, unless asked about them. I do not even have pictures of my wife and kids on my desk. That is just who I am. I also repremand those that talk about how the “scored” the night before, as that does not belong in the workplace either. All those behavors are unprofessional.
Now, outside of the workplace, I hold hands, kiss, brag like a dad, etc. Outside of the workplace, I do not care what one talks about or does, so long as it is legal. If someone wants to hold hands with their significant other so be it. that is your life. But when you life and my life intertwine in the workplace, there has to be some give and take from both of us. I would not ask for a standard to be placed on someone that I would not apply to myself.
Keep your private homelife at home.
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:56 pm#49 – “I would not ask for a standard to be placed on someone that I would not apply to myself.” Comment by hacker bob — February 2, 2007 @ 2:56 pm
So, if you were out at a mall with your wife and kids and saw two guys or two girls holding hands or making out then you’d have no problems with that at all. Well, at least your consistent! ;-)
At work, I only bring up my partner when people start talking about their wives/girlfriends or husbands/boyfriends. Once they start, I feel it’s license to talk about personal things like that.
February 2nd, 2007 at 3:23 pm#50
So, if you were out at a mall with your wife and kids and saw two guys or two girls holding hands or making out then you’d have no problems with that at all. Well, at least your consistent! ;-)
Kissing or holding hands, no problem at all. Now making out is a different story. I would not care if it is man and woman, man and man, or woman and woman, I find it all to be inappropriote public behavior and nothing more.
God I sound like the prude that I am not.
At work, I only bring up my partner when people start talking about their wives/girlfriends or husbands/boyfriends. Once they start, I feel it’s license to talk about personal things like that.
I agree. If relationships are the topic at hand, and you are party to the conversation, then your input and experience has been invited.
February 2nd, 2007 at 3:35 pmKeep your private homelife at home.
Comment by hacker bob — February 2, 2007 @ 2:56 pm
I have never served, but I can imagine that being thousands of miles from home and families, having to face death constantly, and having to be “in the workplace” 24/7 for months on ends… I simply cann’t imagine how one can possibly NEVER talks about his wife or children (assuming that this person’s family actually means something to him)… especially if you can’t even have pictures around… hacker bob, are you really going to ask all the heterosexual soldiers to keep their “private homelife at home”?? you really believe that is fair to them? humane even? if there is any doubt that these standards are not reasonable to ask of heterosexual soldiers , than it is not fair for gays neither, period.
February 2nd, 2007 at 3:43 pmComment by curious
Even if a deployed environment you have “down time”. You sit around and BS with your buddies, etc. You and you buddies having a private conversation is quite different that talking about it in a platoon evnironment where everyone is party to the conversation.
If you want pictures in your living quarters, that is different than having them in your workplace.
February 2nd, 2007 at 3:54 pmThere have been gays in the service for decades. When I was stationed at Ft Bragg 20 years ago there were gays and bisexuals. They were some of the best soldiers in our unit. It is appalling to me that this is still such an issue.
February 3rd, 2007 at 9:24 amConcerning the issue of whether gays should be allowed to openly serve in the military or not has to be considered one the most ridiculous policys ever. This encourages men and woman to start their careers based on a lie from the outset. The don’t ask don’t tell policy, is considered so outragously dumb within the European communities. One doesn’t even have to give this issue much thought in order to realize that it is not only an ineffective policy but stunningly ridiculous. This also serves as a contemporary reminder of our countries history of descrimination. Even within the African American communities decades ago and disrimination they themelves did to each other based on skin color. At many of the clubs in New York and other major cities there would be a man at the door holding a brown paper bag. As patrons would come up to enter the club they first had to “pass the brown paper bag test”. This test was used to determine who was worth entering the establisment and who were not. One would have to be no darker than the brown paper big as the criteria necessary to be eligable for entry. As I pour through history books of all sorts and even what I personally witnessed in this modern age of ours, their are still bizaare prejudices still happening. It is so intersting to me as a frustrated social anthropolgist to read historical facts concerning subcultures in general within American culture and how they were treated as lesser than. However, my interest in modern day prejudices have now turned into disgust and anger as I witness contempory predjides still being played out all over the world.
most often these prejudices were based on;religious diffences, racial discrimation,educatd versus uneducted. A persons heart has no meaning, these issues are based soley on appearences, and the list goes on and on. What I see at the root cause for these disciminations is fear. What we don’t undertand we fear. People react to fear in many ways, and ones children pick up on our reactions toward people or cultures unlike their own.
February 4th, 2007 at 12:17 pmSo many people live their lives from a reactive perspective that children, being the sponges that they are will began the viscious cycle of descrimation of all sorts. Where it is about gays, blacks, brown people or people with far the eatern Asian apperances Particularly our heads of state create fear in each other. They too then become reactive toward the anyone that doesn’t share or same color, religious routines, accents, manner of dress ets In my opinion the reason we have trouble accepting other ways of being and living is because as human beings were are all so driven by learned fear of diffences. Difference are what give the world it’s richness of being, and it is God or the universes way of demonstrating the beauty that is within us all. We need to pay better attention to the beauty that is tuly within us all. So very many of us have lost our abilities to see and feel beauty. There is beauty in the sublime. We MUST PAY BETTER ATTENTION TO THE BEAUTY THAT IS WITHIN AND OUTSIDE OURSELVES. I am convinced when one become comfortable within their own skin, it will show on the outside. I believe if we all experienced those delicious moments that may be fleeting but even so we are left with the undestanding that there is a better way, and that beauty surrounds us all, and within us all. Thank your, Aaron Jason Siver http://www.aaronjasonsilver.com
HMM i THiNK DAT GAYSZ SH0UlD J0iN THE MiliTARYY !
February 12th, 2007 at 8:54 amiT D0ESNT MATTER iF THERE GAY 0R N0T! THEY SH0UlD STYll B ABlE T0 SERVE!
[...] Pace’s bigoted remarks expose the flawed foundation of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and show Pace to be in the minority. A Dec. 2006 Zogby poll of U.S. soldiers found that nearly three in four troops (73 percent) say “they are personally comfortable in the presence of gays and lesbians,” and a Harris poll last month showed that 55 percent of Americans “think gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military.” [...]
March 12th, 2007 at 9:12 pm