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All of you who are against gays serving openly in the military better reconsider. We could very well someday have gay Arabic linguists to thank for stopping another attack on the U.S. and for saving our lives.
I would prefer a unbiased source. That was an opinion piece by someone kicked out of the military. His number may be spot on and it may not be. Being an opinion piece, I'm not so certain that it was fact checked.
All of you who are against gays serving openly in the military better reconsider. We could very well someday have gay Arabic linguists to thank for stopping another attack on the U.S. and for saving our lives.
I'm good with torture.
(Intended as levity.)
Once the military solves the problem of living in close quarters and sharing a room/shower with gays, then there's a discussion. Until then, if gays are going to shower with those they are sexually attracted to (orientation) then it'd be obviously fair for straight men to shower with women, right?
I would prefer a unbiased source. That was an opinion piece by someone kicked out of the military. His number may be spot on and it may not be. Being an opinion piece, I'm not so certain that it was fact checked.
I found another biased source, azconcervative.com (http://www.azconservative.org/Durband_Cut_Lawn.htm - broken link) They say "only" 37 in an article also from 2007.
Quote:
The poll cited by Griffiths is not representative of California citizens. But it agreed with Griffiths’ personal views and made for “good” progressive blogging. In a state with 36 million people, the poll included a mere 680 registered voters. Griffiths also tries to link 11,000 discharges with military linguistics shortages, but did not say that only 37 homosexual linguists were actually discharged.
In the past two years, the Department of Defense has discharged 37 linguists from the Defense Language Institute for being gay. Like Glover, many studied Arabic. At a time of heightened need for intelligence specialists, 37 linguists were rendered useless because of their homosexuality.
Even if it's only one gay Arabic linguist fired, I think that's one too many.
I think the policy of Don't Ask Don't Tell should be abolished, but if I were to make any concessions at all, it would be that DADT can remain in place, but exceptions must be made for specialists, such as Arabic linguists. It makes no sense whatsoever to kick them out. Keep them out of the showers, if the heteros are so afraid of gays, but don't kick out specialists because they say, "I am gay". That's throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water, without a doubt.
I found another biased source, azconcervative.com (http://www.azconservative.org/Durband_Cut_Lawn.htm - broken link) They say "only" 37 in an article also from 2007.
Having attended the school, I find the numbers highly questionable. I'm not disputing that that was the reason the service members were discharged but I honestly don't believe that that many were gay. I'd lay odds that many faked "gay" (the standards for being discharged for homosexuality are extremely low - someone merely stating that they are gay and will engage in gay sex will get you tossed) to get out of going to war. I bet there was a near zero rate of homosexual discharges outside the Middle East Language school.
Even if it's only one gay Arabic linguist fired, I think that's one too many.
I think the policy of Don't Ask Don't Tell should be abolished, but if I were to make any concessions at all, it would be that DADT can remain in place, but exceptions must be made for specialists, such as Arabic linguists. It makes no sense whatsoever to kick them out. Keep them out of the showers, if the heteros are so afraid of gays, but don't kick out specialists because they say, "I am gay". That's throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water, without a doubt.
DADT is effective at maintaining the peace and should remain in place for the foreseeable future.
Would every servicemember be upset with it being rescinded? Absolutely not. Would many? Absolutely. Thus there is an impact on the morale and discipline.
I was involved with the discharge of a gay officer (not by choice). Relatively speaking he was a good guy. He was a pretty sharp servicemember but he couldn't control himself and put himself in a serious legal bind (did something illegal) which also brought his sexuality into view. Had he worked better to stay closeted, he would have no problems and continue to serve.
While many were mature enough to disregard why he was being discharged and treated him like just another servicemember, there was a significant impact on the unit. There was a definite drop in discipline and I'm sure there was an impact on morale as well.
Having attended the school, I find the numbers highly questionable. I'm not disputing that that was the reason the service members were discharged but I honestly don't believe that that many were gay. I'd lay odds that many faked "gay" (the standards for being discharged for homosexuality are extremely low - someone merely stating that they are gay and will engage in gay sex will get you tossed) to get out of going to war. I bet there was a near zero rate of homosexual discharges outside the Middle East Language school.
No, it doesn't. Some people just like to do everything they can to discredit a group and make them look less sympathetic. They're like Holocaust deniers.
If he's truly fired, I predict that he will galvanize an even bigger push to get rid of Don't Ask Don't Tell.
I believe you'd have to be loony-tunes to think that an Arabic linguist should be fired for being openly gay. There are relatively few Americans who are both fluent in Arabic languages and willing to serve in the military.
Got over 30,000 Arab-Americans in East Dearborn about ten miles from my location.
You can't swing a dead cat in East Dearborn with out hitting a young male Arab-American. We have loads of Chaldean's too. I think the only problem you'll have placing these natural Arab speakers in the military is, since so many are Muslims, a large percentage won't want to serve with gays. They get really funny about stuff like that.
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