Comments on: Right-Wing Pundit: Gays In The Military Are Like ‘Me In A Platoon With Hooters Waitresses’

By: Democrat Soldier

Democrat Soldier — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 12:09:49 +0000

#70 – ” As an NCO I can tell you having an openly gay military is opening the door for all sorts of new headaches – hate crimes, equal opportunity issues, and reduced efficiency due to trust issues. These problems would be primarily focused among the â€œworkhorseâ€ of the military, our junior enlisted troops.”

Jason, does this happen in England where they allow openly gay service members? Nope. They are professional military members, and lived with the change.

When I served (86-90) all my roommates knew about me, and not one cared. Why? Because they were professional.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 31 May 2007 18:39:35 +0000

yeahhh… all gay men are walking sexaholics. Mr. Smith must have a lot of experance with gay men.

By: buckles

buckles — Thu, 31 May 2007 17:23:35 +0000

What an ignorant and sexist pig. Gay soldiers would be too preoccupied scoping out their comrades to be effective fighters? I guess he never heard of the Sacred Band of Thebes, and in any event, what makes him think a homosexual male would have the same problem as a heterosexual male (which, incidentally, is insulting to both)? Oh, the weak egos of the white conservative male… poor, poor things.

By: Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy — Thu, 31 May 2007 16:10:53 +0000

#64
My husband was telling me a story about when he served. He said an Sgt. of his used to go down to the gay clubs at the end of the pay period so that he could get his drinks paid for by the guys hitting on him!
LOL

Comment by Bluedahlia

Yeah, right! That was the ONLY reason he went there… of course it was! Do you and your husband actually believe that reason for going to a gay bar? If you buy that, I do have a bridge in the Sahara for sale.

By: powkat

powkat — Thu, 31 May 2007 15:54:58 +0000

I’ll bet he believes the Hooters waitress when she tells him that she’s glad he came, because he’s cool and the rest of the customers are really lame tonight.

By: Zooey

Zooey — Thu, 31 May 2007 15:39:11 +0000

Weâ€™re not children, weâ€™re defenders of freedom.

- Stephen

Comment by Stephen Benjamin â€” May 31, 2007 @ 1:08 am

Well said, Mr Benjamin. Thank you.

By: nffcnnr

nffcnnr — Thu, 31 May 2007 14:42:42 +0000

Smith’s evidence is entirely anecdotal requiring a large leap in logic: Because I’m a horny, mysogonistic pig who lusts after every woman i see, all gay men are horny, indiscriminant animals who lust after every man they see. i’ll give him the first part.

By: Bluedahlia

Bluedahlia — Thu, 31 May 2007 13:16:52 +0000

Thanks for the honesty and integrity of your post, Steven Benjamin.

I absolutely cannot imagine a society where a$$hats like Mark Smith are actually given a public forum for their completely idiotic views. Seriously, this man should be laughed off whenever he opens his mouth and instead he is given air time? I mean WTF?

By: loretta

loretta — Thu, 31 May 2007 10:46:35 +0000

You’d THINK that they would realize that with the sorry state of our Armed Forces the realization would come: We can’t afford to be picky.
They (meaning the Bush Admin et al) should be grateful that ANYONE would take the awful job it must be, to be a defender of our country.
Why are a bunch of draft-dodgers so afraid of gay men?

By: Jackson

Jackson — Thu, 31 May 2007 10:24:32 +0000

I believe this “logic” used to dismiss gays is the same one the military employs to blame female soldiers for the rapes they endure at the hands of their male colleagues. Men cite their inability to control themselves as an excuse, which is all the more ironic since they condemn the women’s “immorality” for provoking rape: how can they have the moral authority to be the judge, jury, and executioner of others when free will–which they claim to lack–is necessary to exercise morality?

If there are those of you who refuse to believe rape is prevalent in the military (including attacks upon suspected gay men), you must be delusional to think that men are biologically incapable of exploiting physical advantage or that sex cannot be a medium to express violent hatred. Rape is to sex what Islamic extremism is to religion: the use of a powerful force to justify tyranny.

By: JMM

JMM — Thu, 31 May 2007 06:57:38 +0000

Just absolutely pathetic of CNN to have this complete moron on TV. Corporate media does such a disservice to actual intelligent discussion and thought in this country . . . I’m sure this yeahoo is so proud of himself for getting himself attention today. It means other idiotic shows will have him on because he provides controversy for their pathetic shows . . . see Hannity, O’Reilley, that Glen Beck clown . . .

By: Wolfdaughter

Wolfdaughter — Thu, 31 May 2007 06:10:47 +0000

Stephen Benjamin:

Excellent post! Thank you.

By: Lora

Lora — Thu, 31 May 2007 06:05:33 +0000

I saw this on CNN, and Mark Smith came out even against making an exception for gay military personnel whose main work would be as translators/interpreters. The US military and various intelligence agencies are desperately short of personnel competent in Arabic and other languages spoken in the Middle East and Afghanistan, and yet rightwing homophobic idiots like Smith act as if gays are more of a threat than Muslim terrorists. Some of the best interpreters/translators of Japanese during WWII were gay, and without them some of the Japanese military codes would never have been cracked or else cracked much later.
I also just “lo-oove” how rightwingers with absolutely no military experience like Mark Smith and Melanie Morgan before him feel that they are qualified to shout a veteran like Soltz down.

By: R. McFarland

R. McFarland — Thu, 31 May 2007 05:58:47 +0000

Jason,

Welcome to the world of a woman.

You say you don’t want gays openly in the military because you have been hit on and were made uncomfortable. I wonder if it has crossed your mind that women deal with this same situation every single day. And yet, female soldiers somehow still manage to keep unit cohesin and do their jobs.

I think the problem people have with gays in the military really boils down to the heterosexual male fear of being treated like a woman…and not so oddly, most of those who get freaked out are those who are so fixated on those “Hooter girls.”

Think about it, and figure out why it seems so much worse to you to have to say no to a man than for a woman to have to do so.

By: Stephen Benjamin

Stephen Benjamin — Thu, 31 May 2007 05:16:37 +0000

Jeez, I can’t win at this game. For real, the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3jCNvL1fnc.

By: Stephen Benjamin

Stephen Benjamin — Thu, 31 May 2007 05:09:45 +0000

YouTube Video

The link in my previous comment was broken.

By: Stephen Benjamin

Stephen Benjamin — Thu, 31 May 2007 05:08:38 +0000

This comment is directed specifically at Jason.
–

Hi Jason,

I was on right before the debate started (Video), I’m one of the Arabic linguists that was discharged. I understand the frustration of straight soldiers and why they would feel uncomfortable serving around an openly gay soldier.

There have been hundreds of thousands of gay soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen since the beginning of this nation’s history — 11,000 of them kicked out in the last 12 years. I don’t want to turn military bases into gay pride parades, I just want to live my life.

All the arguments about “unit cohesion” and “military readiness” are a veil for one thing: the shower factor. You fear that a gay soldier is going to look at you and think you’re cute. So? Great, take the complement. If they hit on you, tell them to go away. If you’re harassed, there’s policies against that.

Gay men have been in communal showers since time immemorial and will continue to be there until the Earth gets sucked into a black hole. Just deal with it, it’s part of life.

The Gay Ban itself is an insult to you, as a straight soldier, and to gay soldiers as well. It tells you that you’re not mature enough to deal with someone who’s a little bit different than you. Sorry, that’s life. Not everyone is like you. To gay soldiers, it tells us that we are not professional enough to respect your privacy and have mature, adult relationships with our battle buddies and co-workers.

We’re not children, we’re defenders of freedom.

- Stephen

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 31 May 2007 04:53:50 +0000

It’s the same mentality within the strict homophobic religious types that is prevalent among more strict Muslims who believe their women should be covered. It’s not that women are temptresses and are always flirting, it’s that the men consider themselves unable to control their natural urges. Therefore it’s the WOMEN that have to cover up. A subtle transference of responsibility.

By: Redleg

Redleg — Thu, 31 May 2007 04:28:48 +0000

It amazes me how many of these neo-con jerkoffs never served in the military but seem to hold themselves as military experts. It seems to me these neo-con a-holes should be sent to Eye-Rack to learn the hard way.

By: Arne Langsetmo

Arne Langsetmo — Thu, 31 May 2007 04:03:11 +0000

Perhaps, given his disabilties, Mr. Smith ought to limit his appearances in public, or even in the vicinity of women, period.

It might do wonders to calm his mind … and leave us better off as well.

I suggest a cave in Afghanistan might suffice….

Cheers,