Woman Becomes First Openly Gay General
Source: New York Times
WASHINGTON An Army officer being promoted to brigadier general openly acknowledged her homosexuality on Friday by having her wife pin her star to her uniform, thus becoming the first openly gay officer of flag rank in the United States military.
The officer, Brig. Gen. Tammy S. Smith, 49, a 26-year veteran of the Army, was promoted in a ceremony at the womens memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. The star was affixed by Tracey Hepner, who was a co-founder last year of the Military Partners and Families Coalition, which provides support, resources, education and advocacy for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender military partners and their families, according to its Web site.
The couple married in March 2011 in the District of Columbia. The military dropped its dont ask, dont tell policy for gay service members on Sept. 20, 2011, after a change in federal law.
The Army said that General Smith was not available for an interview on Sunday. However, she said in a statement that the Defense Department had made sexual orientation a private matter, but that participating with family in traditional ceremonies such as the promotion is both common and expected of a leader.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/us/army-woman-is-first-openly-gay-officer-promoted-to-flag-rank.html
Botany
(70,567 posts)Last edited Mon Aug 13, 2012, 11:41 AM - Edit history (1)
And General Smith will do a good job, life will go on, and slowly one more myth about
the threat by gays in the military will go down into the dustbin of history.
goclark
(30,404 posts)It's HAPPY TEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
proud patriot
(100,714 posts)must be contagious
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)Botany
(70,567 posts)Those two women are good Americans who love their country and
their being gay has nothing to do with that.
Justice wanted
(2,657 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)bigdarryl
(13,190 posts)WooWooWoo
(454 posts)It takes courage to do something like that, especially when I'm still getting safety briefs every weekend telling me not to "do dudes."
Stargazer09
(2,132 posts)The old stereotypes are still out there.
Those safety briefings must be pretty interesting. Are the females instructed to not "do dudes," too?
WooWooWoo
(454 posts)I'm in an infantry unit. Oddly enough, my CO is currently a woman (and pregnant).
tabasco
(22,974 posts)Your infantry commander is a female?
Help me out here.
WooWooWoo
(454 posts)Our regular CO is in Afghanistan right now and our current one (the preggo female) is like a fill-in. I hardly ever see her around the company. In fact, since she assumed command a few months ago I've seen her maybe three times. For all intents and purposes our XO runs everything and he's a guy.
sarge43
(28,942 posts)The restriction on assignment to combat MOS is a glass ceiling for women officers, not so much enlisted. The Army is moving, slowly, toward opening them, so perhaps she's a test case. Still very risky especially considering the available OBGYN facilities probably aren't the best.
WooWooWoo
(454 posts)only a handful of people from our company, including our CO, are over in Afghanistan. The rest of us are back here in garrison.
sarge43
(28,942 posts)Saw a lot of that during the mid-seventies when many of career fields were finally opened up for women.
tabasco
(22,974 posts)be an infantry commander.
What type of unit are you in?
WooWooWoo
(454 posts)With infantry elements, but also elements of other things. We have a scout sniper platoon, a mortar platoon, a fister platoon, a commo platoon, and a supply platoon.
tabasco
(22,974 posts)Trunk Monkey
(950 posts)(All Male artillery unit mind you)
If you're gonna drink don't drive, if you're gonna drive don't drink.
If you dip it , wrap it
Make sure you have the phone numbers of your NCO support chain in your pocket at all times. (the days before cell phones).
I imagine that haven't changed too much in the years since I got out
SpankMe
(2,965 posts)I deal with the military often in my job with a major aerospace contractor to the DOD. Things are almost always easier, smoother and nicer in terms of temperament, flexibility, ego, schedule, interpretation of contract - everything - when the program manager I'm dealing with is a lady Major or Colonel.
About half the uniformed men I deal with in leadership positions (officer ranks) are rigid, authoritarian, egotistical assholes.
I completely agree. I'm a vet married to a retiree. The women I've worked with were nearly always the more compassionate and effective leaders. Of course, there were exceptions both ways.
Stargazer09
(2,132 posts)I'm happy to see a new female general, and I'm glad that she was able to have her spouse with her. A few years ago, she wouldn't have been able to show off her family at any sort of public or military event.
Change takes time, but we are getting there!
sarge43
(28,942 posts)and the service would have been short a good soldier. Bigotry: It hurts all of us.
seanpencil
(168 posts)sarge43
(28,942 posts)Congratulations on that star. ma'am.
rocktivity
(44,577 posts)And but for that, the military would have lost out on all her experience and knowledge, not to mention what we taxpayers have invested in her training!
rocktivity
Aristus
(66,446 posts)49 year-old general: also pretty cool.
Service members who even attain the exalted star rank usually do so in their 50's. She must be a real powerhouse.
Good luck to her. She's earned her star.
sarge43
(28,942 posts)You're right about the powerhouse. Check the bling.
Aristus
(66,446 posts)About time.
England had Richard the Lionheart (who was actually French)
Classical Greece had Alexander the Great.
Now we have one of our own!
Hi, sarge!
(I was going to put T.E. Lawrence, but I realized he wasn't a general; gifted leader of soldiers, though...)
sarge43
(28,942 posts)Tactical genius and put himself in the forefront of battle several times.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)He employed one of J.S. Bach's sons (CPE = Carl Philipp Emanuel) as Capellmeister. Old Bach himself dedicated the Musical Offering to Frederick, the main theme of which was composed "on the spot" by Frederick upon J.S. Bach's visit in May, 1747.
It's a great story told in the introduction to Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter, the smartest book I've ever read.
But, the take-away here is that Frederick was no dummy. Where have we gone wrong these days when we have people like the Republicans put forth, and the public embraces them?
Sigh! Whatta ya gonna do?
4th law of robotics
(6,801 posts)joshcryer
(62,276 posts)Wow, that is incredible. I'm so glad for her.
underpants
(182,868 posts)love it
tclambert
(11,087 posts)And Marcus Licinius Crassus (the Roman who crushed the rebellion of Spartacus). Though you could argue they were both bi-sexual.
Lint Head
(15,064 posts)Glaug-Eldare
(1,089 posts)and the majority of the comments described what an outrage it is that a treacherous, lying, unreliable fagosexual was allowed to lead normal people. Seems like they're incredibly angry that she presumably answered "No" to the question of whether she was a homosexual when she joined.
1. I wonder what they think of that lying scum Audie Murphy, who falsified his identity documents to support a fraudulent age claim.
2. Since being homosexual is a personal choice, how do they know she didn't just decide to become gay in 1993?
DissidentVoice
(813 posts)If they're in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps or Coast Guard, what their opinion of General Smith may be is irrelevant.
I learned on my first night of Air Force basic training that you salute the RANK, not necessarily the person wearing it...and one of these kooks, if they're in the military, refusing to salute a Brigadier General because they don't approve of her sexual orientation, can be in big trouble indeed.
adicortez
(47 posts)*renders salute*
Heather MC
(8,084 posts)honour to pin the promotion stripe or star on a loved one. This is wonderful. Bravo Army!!!
lunatica
(53,410 posts)It blows my breath away. It's happening!
Wow!
myrna minx
(22,772 posts)YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)Think of all the recruits who more or less could of had a career in the service but were outed and then kicked out .. sometimes dishonorably. Why do these career officers who have been in hiding all these years get to reap the benefits that are denied to so many? This means she stood back and watched hundreds of other gay men and women be denied there right to serve while she stayed in hiding. And don't you know that because of her status, that many of the officers who knew, kept it very quiet and protected her. This doesn't happen with recruits. It's bullshit.
sarge43
(28,942 posts)Ask the ghost of TSgt Leonard Matlovich what happened if a gay/lesbian came out. It got ugly and accomplished nothing but another good serviceman kicked out. It took another forty years after he sacrificed himself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matlovich
DissidentVoice
(813 posts)As a male, heterosexual former enlisted Airman, I never bought into the fiction that "homosexuality is incompatible with good order and discipline." There have always been homosexuals in the military, the vast majority of which did the same thing as heterosexual Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coasties: their job.
General Smith is just proof of what most people in the military have known all along.
UnrepentantLiberal
(11,700 posts)fightthegoodfightnow
(7,042 posts)Doesn't get much better than this.
She joins the ranks of Alexander the Great....but on her own terms and as a woman!
Congratulations!!!
Redford
(373 posts)Looks like a lovely couple.
jody
(26,624 posts)determine which is wife and which is husband?
WooWooWoo
(454 posts)The army wouldn't recognize her marriage.