Buried Truths About Gays in the Military

[Swede]

cross posting this one from the lounge


A couple of dozen countries already allow gays in uniform—including allies that have fought alongside our troops, such as Britain, Canada, and Australia. Just as there is plenty of opposition in the U.S. ranks, there was plenty of opposition when they changed their policies.

In Canada, 45 percent of service members said they would not work with gay colleagues, and a majority of British soldiers and sailors rejected the idea. There were warnings that hordes of military personnel would quit and promising youngsters would refuse to enlist.

But when the new day arrived, it turned out to be a big, fat non-event. The Canadian government reported "no effect." The British government observed "a marked lack of reaction." An Australian veterans group that opposed admitting gays later admitted that the services "have not had a lot of difficulty in this area."

http://reason.com/archives/2010/02/08/buried-truths-about-gays-in-th

[old mark]

1. Gays existed before the military was ever thought of.

Maybe the gays should kick the military out....



mark

[TokenQueer]

3. Actually, a gay man CREATED the model our country's military still employs today.

George Washington sent Benjamin Franklin to recruit Prussian military genius Lieutenant General Frederick Von Steuben to train the troops in Vally Forge. Von Steuben agreed to return with Franklin on the condition that he could bring his young male lover. George Washington assigned a gay couple to serve as translators for Von Steuben, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton (who was also likely to have been this nation's first mixed race officer) and 24 year old Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens (who was the son of the President of the Continental Congress that year, Henry Laurens).

Frederick Von Steuben is considered the 'father' of the U.S. military. Think about the hypocrisy here...

[muffin1]

4. +1

:)

[HeresyLives]

2. I'm not sure about that info on Canada.

To the best of my knowledge there was no 'day' when anything changed. We even had gay marriage in the provinces before the federal law went thru. Nobody paid any attention to the provincial changes, and the only reason the federal one got any publicity was because of our rightwing party complaining about it.

If anything 'happened' in the military, I'm unaware of it, but I'm sure the media would have covered it.