Dennis Peacocke comments
New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand recently succeeded in pressing a Senate re-examination of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, previously enacted to side-step the issue of homosexuals in the Armed Services. As long as they kept quiet about their sexual preferences and did not conspicuously engage in homosexual activity, there would be no controversy around their enlistment. However, since the policy was adopted in 1993 under the Clinton Administration, over 13,000 people have been dismissed from the service for their apparent violation of the policy. I'm not sure exactly what prompted those dismissals, but I must assume they were overt enough to warrant discharges from the Armed Services.
I well remember a Bottom Line article I wrote in 1993 when the policy was enacted. The title of it was, "Don't Drop the Soap," and I received a host of varied comments on my comedic approach to the issue (One concerned reader sent me a bar of soap tied to a four-foot rope!). Humor is sometimes a helpful way to diffuse pressure from some issues. Obviously there is little humor on either side of this issue now.
For me, the real issues are these:
Issue Number One: Is mixing homosexuals with straight people in the military (in what are often highly intimate situations) really any different than mixing heterosexuals of different genders together in the same situations? In other words, should we promote common unisex toilets, communal showers and sleeping quarters in the military?
Sexuality is obviously a major issue, as is made obvious by the degree to which it is ubiquitously promoted throughout our sexually preoccupied culture. It is also a highly private matter to many people. However, boobs, butts and genitals do not mix well with other highly focused situations. That's a no-brainer for anyone other than a sexually inept human being. If homosexuality is really equally as normal as being heterosexual, then the perceived "discrimination issue" is absolutely no different, in practical terms, than the so-called discrimination of separating men from women in a military context where sexual energy would complicate relationships in the midst of situations that are mission-driven and often life-threatening.
Issue Number Two: What is not working with the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy? This is not about the moral issues surrounding the "rightness" or "wrongness" of a person's sexual preference. Rather, the very core of the issues surrounding "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is based on sheer practicality. It really goes back to issue number one: keeping too much sexual testosterone or estrogen awareness out of the military equation.
Perhaps the best way to deal with all of this is to demand that Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Kirsten Gillibrand, and all the other members of the Senate and Congress regularly use communal showers and toilets together for several months and then tell us if it affected their performances in any way. By way of clarification, I mean their governmental performances. And if you get my point here, you prove that you understand what I'm trying to say. That, by the way, is...
...the bottom line.
The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.
Dennis -
First, I want you to know that I hear you loud and clear. Mixing sexes can create undesirable results in focused situations, IF people have no self control.
I served for 10 years in the submarine force, a place where focus is paramount and I was gay. Since that time, I have come to learn that if I had been open - it would not have been a big deal. I have stayed in contact with a lot of my shipmates from my Commanding Officer to my seapup. Out of the tens of hundreds of them maybe a few would have had an issue with it - I have not received any negative feedback whatsoever.
So this leands me to my next point. It's all a matter of focus. If I am in a focused situation as you stated my thinking is not on the guys butt next to me, it's on my job and that is where I kept my focus. Article after article I read and you, esp the older generation, seems to be focused on sex. Why?
Being open in the military is not about being open to have random sex or push ourselves on straight soldiers. Instead it is to be able to be ourselves and not LIE. It's about meeting our loved ones on the pier just as the heterosexual sailors, soliders, and airmen do. To embrace the person we love in public and not hide. This hiding and secrecy does a number on you; ya kno?
So I do understand your concern, try understanding ours?