Haha that was the point I was going to make if someone had replied to my question :)
As you say it would be better to sort out the base of the problem, such as you say teaching others that other's sexuality shouldn't matter.
Also closer to On Topic:
What the UK Mo D says about LGBT being allowed to openly serve in the armed forces:
edited 20th Dec '10 3:20:38 PM by IanExMachina
By the powers invested in me by tabloid-reading imbeciles, I pronounce you guilty of paedophilia!It would boost the morale of an extremely small minority of people in the military, down to only a few thousand people in a military of almost a million.
Not to say I disagree with getting rid of it, I've supported getting rid of it as long as it was done appropriately the entire time. My compromise still stands!
^
See, this is what we should have been doing from day 1 in regards to this issue, having more candid discussion with the armed forces of nations that have openly gay servicemembers. Then you have some concrete results instead of just speculation.
As harsh as it sounds, I don't care all that much about the feelings of such a small minority in the military if it causes upheaval of the majority.
I don't think it will, I'm sure we'll just find a cool normal and adjust, the same way we always have. This whole thing is just sort of obnoxious to me with how smug some people are acting though.
A few thousand, which seems like lots, but as I said, in a force about a million strong, isn't very large in the scheme of things.
I guess the only thing I'm not looking forward to is a few assholes screwing things up and making people uncomfortable, every group has assholes, the gay community is no different. They in no way represent the majority obviously.
The only source I've ever seen cited for the 10% number is the Kinsey Report, which uses it for any one who has ever had sex with a member of the same sex ever, even once, including rape, among prison populations in the 60s.
I think it's safe to say service members by percent who identify as gay or have regular homosexual partners are quite a bit lower than that.
edited 21st Dec '10 6:06:19 AM by Roman
| DA Page | Sketchbook |"What do you mean when you use the word 'gay'? If you mean people who identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual in a survey, then the answer is that it's likely not one in ten, but closer to one in twenty. A recent government survey found that 4 percent of adults aged 18-45 identified as 'homosexual' or 'bisexual.' A similar proportion of voters identify as GLB. If you define gay as having same-sex attractions or behaviors, you do get higher proportions that are a bit closer to the one in ten figure."
http://gaylife.about.com/od/comingout/a/population.htm
Even conservatively, still more than a 'few thousand.' And of course we could also get into the fact that more people would happily identify as being gay or bi if there weren't social issues attached to it.
edited 20th Dec '10 11:16:52 PM by Karkadinn
Furthermore, I think Guantanamo must be destroyed.10 percent of the American population being gay doesn't mean 10 percent of the military is. We tend to attract certain types of mindsets that aren't as common in the gay community. We also aren't exactly the type of environment that most gay folks feel that welcome in anyway.
Around 2 percent of Americans are in or have been in the military, I don't believe this 10 percent stuff whatsoever. Maybe a little over ten thousand, sure, but not 10 percent.
edited 21st Dec '10 3:09:04 AM by Barkey
It'll be interesting to survey the demographics in a few years time and see who's-in-what-position. I remember reading an old report(can't find it right now, unfortunately)on integration of gays in the Israeli military that stated that most of the openly gay personnel were not serving in front-line roles.
Well, I think we're making the fallacy in thinking that only the people currently IN the military "count." After all, it's not just the people in the military-it's the people who WOULD be in the military and who SHOULD be in the military, but weren't because of DADT.
Weren't there a lot of Arab translators or something that we had to kick out due to DADT?
One thing I didn't notice in this thread, is that DADT is not instantly repealed - technically, until they rewrite the Uniform Code of Military Justice, they can kick out any two people caught having sex when they're not supposed to. They don't, usually, just do little things like demote them and take half their paycheck. But given that the entire military hierarchy has publically supported the repeal, it's now a quite finite amount of time.
Being active duty Navy (which one troper way
there called "the gayest service"
) I've known plenty of people I think were gay. With one exception, they've all been fairly cool people, good workers, and less likely to screw things up. (That one exception was just a homo Creepy Stalker Guy, of which I've sadly known several hetero CSG's in the Navy.)
I live on a navy base back home, the navy really aren't as gay as folks think.
Then again it's not a real navy base, it's Hueneme, home of the Seabees, where even the women tote machine guns.
Changing the UCMJ always takes time, that's how changing laws work in any setting, but it shouldn't be long. If we strictly obeyed the UCMJ, we would only be allowed to have heterosexual sex in the missionary position, in the dark.(It's a common joke, as oral and anal fall under the medieval "sodomy" charge in the UCMJ that nobody ever gets called out on)
I'll probably be a little annoyed by the fallout of this situation for me personally though, I'm still skeptical as to how much teasing I'll get when the base starts to find out now that it's repealed, but my roomate is bi. I've known this for a long time since he told me and my best friend(his brother) and we've been cool with it, even hung out with his boyfriend a few times. I'm cool with it, but I think I'm going to be earning some stockade time if anybody decides to mess with me about living with a poof.
edited 29th Dec '10 9:46:38 AM by Barkey
"With one exception, they've all been fairly cool people, good workers, and less likely to screw things up." - Blue Ninja
I could imagine that may have something to do with DADT itself; if they're at risk for being fired if found out to be gay, that's all the more incentive to make extra sure that their superiors have plenty of reasons to keep them on the job.
I'm not implying that would justify DADT, I'm just throwing that out there.

^ It doesn't. And if it does, people should be taught that someone else's sexuality should not matter to them.
If anything, repealing DADT would boost morale because gay soldiers don't have to be constantly tip-toeing around their sexuality. I wonder why nobody has ever addressed that.
"Without a fairy, you're not even a real man!" ~ Mido from Ocarina of Time