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Gay U.S. Soldier Wants to Serve Openly
AP ^ | 4/7/05 | Malia Rulon

Posted on 04/07/2005 2:31:08 PM PDT by Crackingham

An Army sergeant who was wounded in Iraq wants a chance to remain in the military as an openly gay soldier, a desire that's bringing him into conflict with the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Sgt. Robert Stout, 23, says he has not encountered trouble from fellow soldiers and would like to stay if not for the policy that permits gay men and women to serve only if they keep their sexual orientation a secret.

"I know a ton of gay men that would be more than willing to stay in the Army if they could just be open," Stout said in an interview with The Associated Press. "But if we have to stay here and hide our lives all the time, it's just not worth it."

Stout, of Utica, Ohio, was awarded the Purple Heart after a grenade sent pieces of shrapnel into his arm, face and legs while he was operating a machine gun on an armored Humvee last May.

He is believed to be the first gay soldier wounded in Iraq to publicly discuss his sexuality, said Aaron Belkin, director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California-Santa Barbara.

"We can't keep hiding the fact that there's gay people in the military and they aren't causing any harm," said Stout, who says he is openly gay among most of his 26-member platoon, which is part of the 9th Engineer Battalion based in Schweinfurt, Germany. Stout, who served in Iraq for more than a year as a combat engineer, said by acknowledging he is gay, he could be jailed and probably will be discharged before his scheduled release date of May 31.

"The old armchair thought that gay people destroy unit camaraderie and cohesion is just wrong," Stout said. "They said the same things when they tried to integrate African-Americans and women into the military."

Before the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, enacted in 1993 under the Clinton administration, the Pentagon had explicitly barred gays from military service. At least 24 countries, including Great Britain, Germany, France, Australia, Canada and Israel, allow gays to serve openly.

In an e-mail following the AP interview, Stout said he had been ordered not to speak to the media. "I guess they found out somehow that I was talking to the press and now they are having a fit. I will try to get everything straightened out," Stout wrote.

Martha Rudd, a spokeswoman for the Army at the Pentagon, said soldiers who are discharged under "don't ask, don't tell" typically receive honorable discharges, although the timing would be up to the individual's commanding officer. She declined to comment about Stout, saying the Army doesn't comment on specific cases.

The issue of whether gays should be allowed to openly serve in the military has received increased attention in recent months as the Army has struggled to meet its recruiting goals. Twelve gays expelled from the military sued the government in December, citing a Supreme Court ruling that declared unconstitutional state laws against homosexual sex. The Bush administration has asked a federal court to dismiss the lawsuit.

Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey has said he opposes changing the policy, although Pentagon figures show a sharp decline in the number of U.S. military members discharged for making it known they are homosexual, falling from 1,227 in 2001 to 653 last year.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: buttbuddies; dod; dontaskdonttell; homosexualagenda; iraq; noshame; perversion
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To: Bommer
Bet they would find something hard in the shower with other naked men or a foxhole with a young tender private they outrank!
I'm often around young enlisted women that I outrank, but that doesn't mean I'm going to use my position to rape them. The same goes for homosexuals.

Do you find it hard to be around the opposite sex without raping them? If you're attracted someone are you completely unable to control yourself?

So, if you can control yourself, why do you automatically assume that homosexuals have an uncontrollable impulse to rape others?
101 posted on 04/07/2005 6:54:00 PM PDT by HerrKobes
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To: Psycho_Bunny
And that's why you don't let gays openly serve: elementary human dynamics.
That's really the only argument for keeping homosexuals out of the military that I can respect.

It doesn't bother me personally, as for the most part I could not care less what the great majority of other people are thinking. I can understand why some would be uncomfortable.
102 posted on 04/07/2005 6:56:56 PM PDT by HerrKobes
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To: speed_addiction
I have no qualms about gays serving. I know this one pulled his own weight

I concur. As a grunt, I was aware of one soldier in my platoon whose orientation was questionable at best. Although he never made it public, there was an unspoken understanding among some of us he was most certainly gay, or at least bi-sexual. Be that as it may, he kept it largely to himself and there wasn't a single squad leader/platoon sergeant that wouldn't be proud to have him.

103 posted on 04/07/2005 7:27:16 PM PDT by Nexus6
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To: auboy
"They said the same things when they tried to integrate African-Americans and women into the military."

The old "we're just like blacks" canard. Sheesh.

Sir! May I push your stool in for you, Sir!

104 posted on 04/07/2005 7:32:45 PM PDT by brivette
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To: Gunrunner2
"I know a ton of gay men..."

Well, at 150 pounds each, that would mean about 13-14. If that's out of the entire Army, that isn't that many.

105 posted on 04/07/2005 7:35:15 PM PDT by Bernard
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To: speed_addiction

Things have sure changed since 1967


106 posted on 04/07/2005 7:44:24 PM PDT by joesnuffy (The generation that survived the depression and won WW2 proved poverty does not cause crime)
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To: Crackingham
[ Gay U.S. Soldier Wants to Serve Openly ]

Talk about a statement that sucks..

107 posted on 04/07/2005 7:52:20 PM PDT by hosepipe (This Propaganda has been edited to include not a small amount of Hyperbole..)
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To: Crackingham
Gay U.S. Soldier Wants to Serve Openly

Sure. The pink pervert brigade. Their mission: infect "openly gay" enemy soldiers with AIDS, herpes, and hepatitus.

108 posted on 04/07/2005 7:59:29 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Delta 21

I think a lot of you don't understand what he means when he says that he wants to serve openly. I don't think he means he wants to have sex with other soldiers, dress in drag, or talk about gay orgies. It's probably more like when he's sitting with the other people he serves with and they're talking about who they miss back home he can be honest about who he misses.

This is usually what gay people mean by being open and honest. Many straight men seem to believe that they aren't "open" about they're sexuality, but when you dig a little deeper you find out that they love to talk about they're wives, girlfriends, and kids. Can you imagine trying to be fiends with someone without telling your friend that you're married or have a girlfriend?


109 posted on 04/07/2005 8:20:34 PM PDT by owen_osh
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To: Crackingham
Hey pal, if you want to serve openly, quit the army and go wait tables at a gay bar for a living.

Sheesh. I am so SICK of this gay cr@p... When is this idiotic fad going to go away?
110 posted on 04/07/2005 8:33:02 PM PDT by Antoninus (In hoc signo, vinces †)
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To: Zeppelin
the title is hilarious (if read with an open/warped mind).

Glad I'm not the only one!

111 posted on 04/07/2005 8:37:40 PM PDT by StarCMC (It's God's job to forgive Bin Laden; it's our job to arrange the meeting.)
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To: speed_addiction
Hence Don't Ask ..... Don't Tell.

When I was enlisted .... boy were there stories .... but mostly stories. But I did have a roommate in the Rangers, who had a bizarre 'gay' experience that he used to like to tell.

As an officer, after I had to notify a soldier that he was HIV positive, I did conduct a dreaded gay "witch hunt" in my company. After the witch hunt, in an infantry company, I actually decided to allow women in my barracks (signed-in with the CQ) until taps. "Proper Social Development" .... while my 1st Sgt hated it, it worked well.

112 posted on 04/07/2005 9:30:01 PM PDT by Yasotay
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To: Crackingham
My favorite line: I guess they found out somehow that I was talking to the press and now they are having a fit. I will try to get everything straightened out," Stout wrote.

If he would do this, he just might live longer . . .
113 posted on 04/07/2005 9:45:34 PM PDT by yevgenie (8 bits in a byte; 2 bits to a quarter ($.25) ==> so, 8 bits is a dollar ???)
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To: 50calfrau
"Sodomy should be a crime in this country. They used to lock soldiers up and throw away the key for this evilness."

You've obviously never been stationed/TDY in the Pacific or Europe. I'm a straight man and I can remember when military medics would inspect and treat working girls who "sodomized" servicemen. If sodomy rules were enforced I'm afraid there would be a lot of married heterosexuals caught in that net also.

114 posted on 04/08/2005 5:40:37 AM PDT by blaquebyrd
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To: Crackingham
An Army sergeant who was wounded in Iraq wants a chance to remain in the military as an openly gay soldier, a desire that's bringing him into conflict with the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Sgt. Robert Stout, 23, says he has not encountered trouble from fellow soldiers and would like to stay if not for the policy that permits gay men and women to serve only if they keep their sexual orientation a secret.

He made a really poor choice of countries in which to make a first stand.

115 posted on 04/08/2005 5:44:49 AM PDT by infocats
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To: GullyFolye
Klintoon was "throwing a bone" to gays with Don't ask, don't tell. It was Klintoons version of Jimmuh Catah letting Fidel Castro empty his prisons and asylums into the US for us to deal with.

Both plans were stupid, ignorant play acting and were not the product of rational thought. Kind of like every Demwit policy before or since.

116 posted on 04/08/2005 5:59:38 AM PDT by libs_kma (USA: The land of the Free....Because of the Brave!)
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To: Wild Bill 10
Now take some penecillan fot that discharge.

Hehehehehehe. That was good.

117 posted on 04/08/2005 6:05:22 AM PDT by RepoGirl (I'll be your huckleberry...)
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To: HerrKobes

What does a rapist look like?


118 posted on 04/08/2005 6:55:40 AM PDT by Bommer
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To: All
Don't Ask Don't tell from the Clinton Era is a failure as well as Clinton's coed Military. The Military is not a social testing institution.

Both these policies have lowered Moral and created more problems that take away from the mission of our military.

119 posted on 04/08/2005 10:23:45 AM PDT by Evolution
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To: owen_osh

I do understand what he is talking about. He is trying to pass his perverted way of life (or casual sexual habits) off as if it were perfectly acceptable.

WELL, ITS NOT ! !

They think they have the right to be upset and slighted over the mention of my disagreeing about their sexuality.

Well, I have the the same right to voice my disagreements over their sexuality and throw it back in their face. Its not like this heterosexual thing just started catching on a few years ago.


120 posted on 04/08/2005 12:02:22 PM PDT by Delta 21 (MKC USCG -ret)
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