Pentagon eyes more "humane" enforcement of gay ban

the U.S. Marine Commander said today he wants separate living quarters
for gay and strait marines.

I served for six years in the navy as a nuclear machinist mate. I knew a couple of guys that got out on "rainbow chits"...that is being homosexual. The thing is, none of them were gay and the command basically knew it. This is the dirty little secret about the whole "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"...commands use it as a quick way to get rid of people that want to get out. If a kid just wants to get out, it takes forever to process them and by the time they do, the kid has an OTH or worse. Say your gay, its a quite Admin Sep. I served with two guys that were basically openly homosexual (oddly enough, they did not get along at all with each other). No one honestly cared. (other than this one female division officer who was a complete moron that we all hated).

When a new kid came to the boat, we gave them shit. If we found out you didn't like black people...you got to share a six pack (racks set up in 6 or 12 bunks) with five back dudes. Didn't like hispanics, your stuck in "little Havana", etc. If we found out you were homophobic, you were going to get your ass slapped a lot. Whatever set you off, if it became common knowledge, people would give you shit about it to pass the time. I don't know how the dudes found out, but word got out that I had a phobia of people touching their eyes. For about 2 weeks, guys were changing out their contacts in front of me, the dude relieving me on watch would be touching his eyeball, hell, I don't know how they got it, but I came back from watch one time and the entire division was watching an eye surgery on the berthing TV just to fuck with me. Eventually I got over it, stopped reacting, and they stopped bugging me about it.

The same arguments against gays serving open in the military were the same arguments against de-segregating the branches and allowing women in. The loudest people bitching about letting gays serve open are the people that never served. Its a goddamn joke. There are already homosexuals in the military. There have been homosexuals that have given the ultimate sacrifice for this country and I willing to bet, there have been homosexuals that have received the Medal of Honor. Hell...Israel allows open homosexuals to serve. We need to grow up as a society.

The problem is collectivism and statism! The problem is, most people think using force and coercion leads to long-run sustainability and prosperity, just the opposite! We don't need to persecute gays, we don't need to bomb the world, we don't need to be taxes for it! Where did all the Freedom supporters go?!?!?

Living in the tent is not really the issue. The main concern is in the showers. Which currently are all stalls in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The homophobic redneck culture promotes homophobic ideas. European nations have openly gay Soldiers serving in their military's and there are no issues.

I am more concerned with despicable heterosexual men that rape women in theater and are able to get away with it. The percentages of men getting raped that show up in the ER are extremely rare. However, the number of women showing up are exponentially higher. Women are even afraid to report it anymore because it is largely ignored in theater.

I feel like these people are basing their fears on what they think they know about gay people and not what's really true. Just because you're a man doesn't mean you should flatter yourself into thinking that every gay man is into you.

Something about "humane" and "gay ban" doesn't seem right...

It seems strange that a soldier who can handle the extremes of war cannot handle the possibility of another soldier maybe being attracted to him. The real morale issue is the homophobic sexual insecurity that military culture is not only ignoring, but protecting. I know they're heroes on the battlefield, but what pussies they can be in the tents...

Since we no longer have a draft and therefore a person has to pro-active and actually go to a recruiter and sign up to join the military-- so why would an openly gay person even sign up and if they tried why wouldn't the recruiter just show them the door?

That and we are currently fighting 2 wars--which means nobody heterosexual or homosexual should be worrying about who is looking at them with "lust" or assessing who they are going to hook up next--they should be focusing in on fighting the war and coming back home alive and safe. Because once they are civilians again they can pretty much have as much sex as they want with whomever they want as long as their partner is over 18 and gives their consent.

Gates can't handle this. He doesn't know how to proceed.

'soften the blow'- thats what he said!