Have some more American RAEG!

[vulgarweed]

http://www.servicemembersunited.org/survey

This is the survey the Pentagon sent out to service members regarding DADT.

It basically boils down to 32 pages of variations on the theme of:

Q. I will treat other human beings in my unit as human beings if I find out they are gay/lesbian, true/false?

A. (multiple choice):

1. Yes

2. No

3. Maybe, but ICK! I won't like it.

4. I'm too ignorant to know or care.


Yes, I've read the whole thing all the way through, and I would definitely quit any job who thought this line of questioning was appropriate in any way. Yes, I get that in the military it's different, you sign up for a contract and you have to take orders...so isn't it long past time someone with authority stood up and said GLBT PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE AND THEY ARE YOUR COMRADES, SO MAN UP, SOLDIER, AND GET OVER YOUR STUPID SUPERSTITIOUS PREJUDICES OR ELSE?

(And if the Pentagon is so worried about the possibility of people feeling uncomfortable about folks maybe getting checked out in the showers...maybe they might want to do something about the widespread and well-documented rape of female soldiers by male soldiers allegedly on their same side? Cause I can't think of anything more damaging to unit cohesion than that.)

Comments

[sarken.livejournal.com]

GLBT PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE AND THEY ARE YOUR COMRADES, SO MAN UP, SOLDIER, AND GET OVER YOUR STUPID SUPERSTITIOUS PREJUDICES OR ELSE?

This is pretty much how DADT should be handled, in my silly civilian opinion. You are in the military. You take orders. It is not a democracy; you do not get to vote via survey on whether this law should be repealed. You do what you are told, and if you are told to deal with it, you deal with it. God damn it, people.

Have some more American RAEG!

[notlefthanded.livejournal.com]

Fucking word.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_silverfox/]

PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE

Not sure about your army, but soldiers are people might still be news to a lot of armies around the world, so this might indeed be a bit over their heads ... :(

[maelipstick.livejournal.com]

There's a whole bunch of these things around my city at the moment and I'm loving it. Perhaps they could put a few outside the Pentagon?

Repost for muffed html. Sorry

[thistle-verse.livejournal.com]

Yeah. And the thing is, I think it would be so easy to just do it. The military integrated by order and while I'm not saying there is no racism, it was probably the smoother than any sector of civilian society. I believe we could see the same thing happen with repealing DADT, if we would stop this kind of bullshit.

The other things that stand out to me:

1. We're already moving toward more personal privacy. The brand new barracks our BN is moving into are two person apartments, with individual bedrooms sharing a kitchen and bath.

2. If a gay soldier propositions you and you are not gay, what happened to being a grown up and saying "no thanks" just like you would do if someone of the opposite sex who you weren't interested in did the same? Come on, people.

[quantum-witch.livejournal.com]

FUCK YES. I've thought this before, but you put it so much better.

[apricot-tree.livejournal.com]

"GLBT PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE AND THEY ARE YOUR COMRADES, SO MAN UP, SOLDIER, AND GET OVER YOUR STUPID SUPERSTITIOUS PREJUDICES OR ELSE?" Since this is more or less what happened when the services integrated, I don't think this is out of the realm of possibility. And no, it didn't get rid of the racism. But it made it very apparent that you had better keep those sorts of view to yourself and not act on them.

[hsavinien.livejournal.com]

YES, THIS.

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Yes, I get that in the military it's different, you sign up for a contract and you have to take orders...so isn't it long past time someone with authority stood up and said GLBT PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE AND THEY ARE YOUR COMRADES, SO MAN UP, SOLDIER, AND GET OVER YOUR STUPID SUPERSTITIOUS PREJUDICES OR ELSE?

Expecting soldiers to act like grown adults? Naaw, that's going a bit too far!

[amberdiceless.livejournal.com]

And if the Pentagon is so worried about the possibility of people feeling uncomfortable about folks maybe getting checked out in the showers...

As an aside to this, I am continually amazed that the military minds who think nothing of spending billions of taxpayer dollars on war machines even their own commanders say they don't need are apparently unwilling to cough up $2 for a shower curtain.