Ask and Tell

So...I don't get it. I'm never one to discuss military politics because, well, my scope of both of those subjects is fairly limited and influence by the media in which I tune into. But something that has never sat right with me is the bullshit excuse of why gays, lesbian, bisexual and transgenered men and women cannot serve openly in the US armed forces.

When you wikipedia Don't Ask, Don't Tell you'll learn that the Bill was passed under then-president Bill Clinton (!) to appeal to the right-wingers of the States. Before DADT, a GLBT person would have to be completely quiet about his/her orientation, any relationships or any stories pertaining to a same-sex union. Otherwise some douchebag that didn't get along with you, could walk on over to your superior officer, tell him/her what you heard and boom - dishonorable discharge. Meaning no pension, no monies (for your time served), nothing. Some (douchebags) will argue "Why does a gay person have to discuss their private life in a platoon in the first place?" - well from my understanding, from my cousin, who is currently in Afghanistan now, um, people talk. People also get bored and when they get bored, they do this nifty thing where they engage in conversation and try to find similiarities to build camaraderie and make the boring times pass quickly. So if you're a 'mo, it becomes quiet difficult to censor your stories or carefully refer to the his's as her's and the he's as she's, all the time. Hence it's just easier to be honest (different between honest and graphic - just like I don't like to know the inner workings of my lady friends lady parts as told by my straight guy friends, they don't like to hear the inner workings of how great I am at fellatio) and refer to a boyfriend as a boyfriend and not a girlfriend.

So what Slick Willy meant to do was say "Alright, douchebags, we have a lot of people that are fine soldiers and fine workers for the Armed Forces of the US of A and we need them, so I'm going to allow them in *uproar starts from douchebags* BUT they cannot talk about their privates lives, even in off time, to calm your ignorant nerves. " So it's not the best solution at all but it's definately a better solution than what was the current course of action.
Proponents of DADT claim that:

Homosexuality is incompatible with military service. The presence in the military environment of persons who engage in homosexual conduct or who, by their statements, demonstrate a propensity to engage in homosexual conduct, seriously impairs the accomplishment of the military mission. The presence of such members adversely affects the ability of the armed forces to maintain discipline, good order, and morale; to foster mutual trust and confidence among service members; to insure the integrity of the system of rank and command; to facilitate assignment and worldwide deployment of service members who frequently must live and work in close conditions affording minimal privacy; to recruit and retain members of the armed forces; to maintain the public acceptability of military service; and to prevent breaches of security.

Christ Jeebuz! Homosexuals don't even talk about homosexuals as much as these proponents do! Which brings me to my first sentence of this post...So...I don't get it. How does Larry, while having a beer at a bar with his squadron, saying something to the effect of "Went on a date last week, he was nice, but no spark really, I think we'll probably just end up as friends" suddenly cause the straight men and women of his platoon to go batshitcrazy and forget their discipline, forget their orders, forget their training? Seriously. It's gay-panic at it's worst.

Gay-panic - used by gay-bashers to place blame on the victim. I'm not kidding. It's a claim, used in court, that states the straight basher was so put off and scared by the gay-victim's advances that he lost his sanity temporarily and beat the victim. This is real. Now I know gay men (and woman and transgendered and bisexuals to be inclusive) are not as inhibited as our straight brothers and sisters out there, where as straight people are all coy and demure and slick when trying to bag their conquest, a gay man can make eye contact with another gay man, smile, if the smile is returned, can walk right up to him and say "I WANT TO FUCK! YOU IN?" and it's easy as that (thank you Jamie for the joke :) But sometimes straight guys are approached by gay guys and the gay guy can be pretty insistent and quite the douchebag. This is all that needs to be said, as said by my friend, Bren:

Gay douchebag: "So can I buy you a drink?"
Bren: "Aw, thanks but I'm one of those breeders Darek was talking about" (I was up on stage with the Drag Queen and most of my party were straighties and since I was drunk, I pointed this fact out)
Gay douchebag: *inches in closer* "So? Your point?"
Bren then laughed nervously and walked to Jen G and gave her a hug or put his arm around her or something I dunno, I was too drunk to remember the rest of the story.

But you see?! You see the professionalism, the etiquette, the fucking calm Bren had up until gay douchebag because a total douchebag? Bren doesn't suffer from gay-panic, hell he's even let a bunch of 20 year old gay-gays take his picture at Buddies (with them in it) because the birthday boy of that bunch thought he was cute. He then wished that guy a 'Happy Birthday' and began dancing with Jen (his Jen this time) a little provacatively to just get the message across that he was flattered but straight as can be and happy that way. Again, do you see the awesomeness that straight people can be when it comes to gay people? Do you see how Brendan didn't lose his shit, storm out of the bar and punch some filipino twink in the face on his way out because he was so scared of the gays?

To claim that because I'm gay, all 140 pounds of me, I have this inherent chaotic panic-inducing psychosis that could disrupt the mission, cause treason, endanger lives and let the bad guys win is offensive and just utterly ridiculous.

America, do your country proud, follow in the footsteps of Canada (yes your Liberal Hippy cousin of the North), Israel, Germany, Italy, the UK, Switzerland and Australia, and vote in a President that will look at the character and skills of those in the Armed Forces and not who they try to pick up at a bar.

(Pssst....I'm talking about Barack Obama)