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- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!sgiblab!kludge!therat!missing!pbowden
- From: pbowden@missing.kludge.com (Pete Bowden)
- Newsgroups: alt.rush-limbaugh,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.homosexual
- Subject: Re: Showering in the Military (Re: Gays in the Military..what nobody
- Message-ID: <TayLwB2w165w@missing.kludge.com>
- Date: Wed, 30 Dec 92 10:24:04 PST
- References: <1992Dec29.034601.28832@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
- Organization: The Missing Link BBS, Santa Maria, CA 805-925-1129
- Lines: 61
-
- fogarty@sir-c.jpl.nasa.gov (Tim Fogarty) writes:
-
- >
- > In article <1992Dec29.004539.5683@anasazi.com>, john@anasazi.com (John R. Moo
- > |>The argument (actually, the part of it germain to your comment) is
- > |>that integrating gays into the military would adversely affect military
- > |>unit cohesion, and that coercion is not enough to fix that; furthermore,
- > |>that (unlike the case with blacks), it is NOT important to the united
- > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- > |>participate in the military), and thus it doesn't justify facing
- > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- > |>all of these problems
- >
- > Since there is no RIGHT to participate in the military, why was it important
- > to integrate blacks into the military in the 50s and not important to
- > integrate gays into the military in the 90s ?
- >
- > And how many times must it be said ? There are ALREADY 10s or 100s of
- > thousands of gays in the military. Changing the rules so that these soldiers
-
- I think the REAL argument which people are poking at but not saying is
- that there is a BIG difference between having people in the military who
- are gay and *HAVE TO* keep quiet about it, and having gay people in the
- military who are known to be gay and perhaps even flaunting it. Knowing
- that homosexuals are not permitted in the military provides a certain
- amount of safety to the heterosexual males. First, as long as that
- ruling exists the likelyhood that you are confronted or knowledgable
- about who is gay is somewhat negligible. It does keep gays in line, if
- you wish to call it that. As long as people are not KNOWN to be gay then
- people in the showers, barracks, and wherever else will not be self-
- conscious.
-
- I have many friends who are gay, but I would feel harassed if I was
- forced to undressed in front of them. Knowing a group of people who are
- publicly gay (and believe me, as soon as it is permitted those that are
- gay will flaunt it--or at least the majority will) to me would be a form
- of sexual harassment, imposed on my by the military. There are going to
- be people in the military who are heterosexual who joined the military
- knowing that there was a certain level of 'protection' from this form of
- sexual harassment by the fact that gays are not allowed in the military.
- They basically signed a contract (as did everyone else who entered)
- stating that they are not gay--now they'll be in the locker rooms and
- everywhere else publicizing the fact.
-
- > wont have to worry about being kicked out will not adversely affect military
- > unit cohesion. Fear is not what is keeping these soldiers in line. A good
- > soldier is a good soldier, whether he/she is gay or straight.
-
- Looks like we'll find out about this one... well, maybe we'll find out.
- It's not going to be easy to show how it will be effected. I wonder what
- will happen once the next president gets in... is this going to be a
- bounce back and forth type thing... are they going to go after the
- people who lied on their applications? Is the fact that they lied on
- their applications going to affect their future advancements? Breaking
- the law isn't excused just because you think it's a bad law.
-
-
-
- --
- pbowden@missing.kludge.com (Pete Bowden)
- The Missing Link BBS, Santa Maria, CA 805-925-1129
-