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Really? Every other NATO country has had gays openly serving for awhile now, and I don't think they have separate quarters. Why can they handle it, but the poor little American soldiers can't?
Bingo. When I was in Iraq and Afghanistan, we would share quarters and showers with coalition members; many which didn't have any policies on homosexuality. In the mornings you'ld see a "12 person" shower trailer packed with up to 30 soldiers. Nobody gave a damned what your orientation was. Just get in, get clean up, and get out in five minutes or less. There's no time for f'ing around (literally).
Overall, homophobia has been an effective method for social conservatives to scare up the vote. Over the years, however, it's lost its effectiveness. With DADT dead, their only remaining boogieman is gay marriage. They can probably get one or two more election cycles out of that before that dies to. Then they'll find another "threat" or stick to their current lineup:
- Hispanics (ILLEGALS!!!)
- Muslims (TERRORISTS!!!)
- Poor Blacks (CRIMINALS!!!)
- Poor Whites (DEADBEATS!!!)
The overwhelming majority of gays walk around society (and in the military) and you'd never know it. Most gays are not flamboyant fairies dancing in rainbow colored clothing to Judy Garland or Liza Minelli.
And until heterosexuals are held to the same standard of not showing it, which we sure as heck know isn't going to happen in the military where obscene sex talk is the norm, it's a double standard to force gays to.
Sure, but it's the flamboyant ones that will cause the issues.
I served in the military, and would have had no problems sharing living quarters with another male who was gay/bi, and given oft-thrown around statistics I probably did at some point.
I suspect people greatly overestimate how much people really give a **** about stuff like this.
Wow, usually this line of thought comes eight pages into the discussion, and you jump into it right away.
Soon after that will come the person who tries to convince us that gay and lesbian soldiers can be roommates, because they have a drastically lower libido, always get along with all other gays, and therefore will not have sex together, never have bad break ups, never suffer from feelings of jealousy, envy, or anger, from being scorned or rejected by another gay soldier.
Obviously, for the issues or morale, discipline and unit cohesion, the military has taken great pains to keep the living quarters and shower areas of men and women separated. No unit commander wants their unit to turn into a soap opera of personal relationships, bad break ups, jealous lovers, and quarreling roommates, and sexual relations in the barracks.
The navy had to retrofit older ships and even more recently, submarines, with separate areas for men and women, before they could sail those ships.
It's not fair to toss young men and women, with raging hormones, into the same living quarters, give them a copy of the regs for proper conduct, and not expect there to be serious problems down the road.
Let's not forget about E-clubs.
Lots of eighteen and nineteen year-old inexperienced drinkers plus cheap liquor means fist fights and office hours. Throw some homosexuals into the mix and you can toss military discipline and unit cohesion out the window.
The whole ethic behind ground pounders at the sharp end of the stick is the cohesivness of the team. Working in unison and reading each others thoughts becomes the norm. I don't believe a predispostion to being 'gay' will markedly change that.
How this will effect the team will be decided by themselves. A good team with solid leadership will deal with it.
If it's going to cause devisivness within the team, I'd suspect they'll get rid of the cause in a hurry but if, as I suspect, soldier A who is the best SAW gunner to come out of training but who is also gay is being judged on his merit of laying down a solid sweep of covering fire, he'll be treated as all the others and his gayness will simply be overlooked, if not forgotten about entirely.
No, they shouldn't. If military men can't handle sharing quarters with gay men, then they can't handle being shot at or killing people and need to be discharged.
I don't think the female separation is due to attraction, I think it's to prevent women from being taken advantage of by men. However, this seems to be an American issue, since Europe has co-ed bathrooms/saunas/showers etc. and no one bats an eye.
"Taken advantage of"?
That's so cute!
Glad there isn't a convenient double standard in play.
Let's see if I've got this now...male service members have to be able to take like a man because they have to be tough enough to deal with combat. Female service members might be taken advantage of by male service members because they are basically helpless but still belong in the same military as males. That about it?
For sleeping accommodations all soldiers should be separated according to sex, sexual orientation, race, religion, ethnic origin, and political beliefs.
When I was stationed at Ft. Carson, for a short time I lived in a two man room with a roommate from Puerto Rico named Lorenzo. Back then, in my early 20's, I didn't have "Gaydar", and I didn't even know the guy was gay until I left Ft. Carson and got out of the Army and was told by someone still in that he was seen with his "buddy" in a gay bar in Colorado Springs.
So, the question is not one of can you live in close quarters with someone who is gay (you can) but the question is will soldiers be taught to tolerate those different than they are? The macho stereotype of hating gays as being "feminine" or "unmanly" has to now be deconstructed. And it is.
The great thing about the military is it's diversity, the different races and backgrounds one is exposed to is a priceless lesson that kids can benefit from. It is no different with gay people, and it is time they quit being discriminated against like blacks were when the military was segregated.
The lesson is tolerance for those different than you are, and it should be taught everywhere.
Right, the 98% who are not homosexuals should be forced to accommodate the 1-2% who are. Yep, can't have an effective military until we do that.
No, don't be silly. The military is over and above personal issues. Everyone has to fit into the mold, not have the mold fit them.
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