Posted on 07/26/2005 7:33:40 AM PDT by Gunner9mm
Allowing Homosexuals Would Boost Military Recruitment, Group Argues By Alexa Moutevelis CNSNews.com Correspondent July 26, 2005
(CNSNews.com) - A group that wants homosexuals to serve openly in the U.S. military said Monday that the military could attract as many as 41,000 new recruits if the ban on homosexuals were lifted.
"The 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' law hangs like a 'Gays Not Welcome' sign outside the Pentagon's front door," said Sharra Greer, director of law and policy for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN).
"Thousands of lesbian and gay Americans are ready to answer our nation's call to service, but are turned away because of federally sanctioned discrimination. Now, more than ever, our country needs the talent of these patriotic Americans. We can make our homeland more secure by repealing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' once and for all," Greer said in a press release.
The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is citing a new analysis of 2000 data by Gary J. Gates, senior research fellow at the Williams Project, UCLA School of Law.
Gates told Cybercast News Service that 14,000 homosexual men, or 1.4 percent, currently are on active duty in the military under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy of the Clinton era.
But, Gates says, if the ban were lifted and the service rates of homosexual men rose in proportion to the service rates of heterosexual men, that figure would increase to 34,000 homosexuals on active duty. Adjusting the National Guard and Reserve numbers, the potential number of homosexuals in the military would reach 41,000, Gates figured.
"I do think it's important to say that at a time when the military is having recruitment problems, this is one set of people that could potentially be one source of recruitment that they're not using," Gates said.
But Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, told Cybercast News Service , "There are other ways to remedy shortages that we may have in potential recruits right now."
Donnelly said allowing openly homosexual soldiers to serve in the military will have the opposite effect on recruiting numbers.
"Well if you really wanted to destroy recruiting, that would be a pretty good way to do it," said Donnelly, who characterized SLDN as "an advocacy group."
"They don't have the best interests of the military at heart. I don't think they really care about recruiting either. If they did, any fair-minded person would realize that the majority of recruits would certainly be dissuaded in its decision to join the military if the policy were as Bill Clinton wanted it originally [homosexuals being allowed to serve but discreetly]," she said.
"That's a completely unfounded claim," Steve Ralls, director of communication for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, told Cybercast News Service.
"We know from our allies' experience that military enlistment did not suffer as a result of lifting the gay ban, and the Pentagon itself cannot point to a single case where a heterosexual service member has said that he or she was unable to serve alongside openly gay allied troops in a war zone. So I don't think there is any basis for that assertion," said Ralls.
Donnelly compared the military's right to exclude homosexuals to female locker rooms with signs that prohibit little boys from entering or excluding little girls from entering men's rooms.
"That doesn't mean that the community that posted those signs, this recreational center, is somehow prejudiced against little boys or little girls, it just means that we do have a respect for sexual privacy, and that is something everyone is very comfortable with," Donnelly said.
"It by no means is comparable to racial separation, something that would be totally unacceptable in virtually every community in America. But sexuality is an entirely different category," she said.
"To say that sexuality doesn't matter, that is something that Congress will not agree to. I don't see them anytime in the near future agreeing to that, nor should they," added Donnelly.
Ralls countered that "there is a growing consensus in Congress among Democrats and Republicans that this policy is not a good idea."
The Military Readiness Enhancement Act, a bill to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and allow homosexuals to serve openly, is currently pending in the U.S. House of Representatives. The SLDN notes the bill currently has 90 bi-partisan supporters and was endorsed by eight retired military officers.
"If the Military Readiness Enhancement Act is not taken up for a vote in this Congress, we believe it will be soon," Ralls said.
"When you have members of Congress like Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, who is a staunch conservative, a Vietnam War veteran who knows the military inside and out and is saying that the ban can be lifted and should be lifted, that is a sign of very significant progress," added Ralls.
But, Donnelly said, Congress has already made its intentions known on the subject.
"The concept has been in place since at least 1981 that homosexuality is incompatible with military service. The reason is that people live in conditions of forced intimacy. It is not like the civilian world. It is not like any other occupation, and Congress, in its wisdom, passed a law that reflects those military realities," concluded Donnelly.
"Queer eye for the GI." That is the goal of the homosexuals; to have free access to showering with your sons and daughters. If they would be segregated, fine, just as we segregate normal men from women in showers. But for my son to be forced to shower with homosexuals is truly a disgusting and degrading thought.
The Clinton clan supported homosexuals in the military as a method to demoralize and degrade our warriors. Another of his outstanding directives to bring down America.
But they want you to know how much better they are than you.
That's right, I forgot about that story. There was a similar situation in Boulder a few years ago where a kid (male) got a job in a coffee shop and his first day on the job he showed up in a dress, fake nails, jewelry etc. Definately not how he looked when he interviewed. The ACLU made sure he kept his job, of course. Weird people out there.
There are soooo many other ways to show me that! :-)
Elaine Donnelly is a national treasure.
There were gay guys in my squadron, and everyone knew who they were. They also knew to keep it in the closet to stay out of trouble, and if you ask me the system worked fine for 200 years. The problem now is they want to be "open" with their sexuality, which would cause big problems, as would anyone be too open with their sexuality. They just need to understand that some people are morally opposed to what they do, so they need to keep it private and off base.
One of our corpsman was gay, but it never came up, and the guy did a hell of a job sewing up my arm. What he did off base was his own business. I'm sure we had plenty of adulterers as well, but they didn't advertise it.
Allowing homosexuals in the miltary might boost the ranks of homosexuals in the military, but it will delete all the other groups. It will destroy moral. PERIOD!
I can just imagine a group of Islamic terrorists being routed by a regiment of gay military men and the ensuing humiliation they would suffer.
I am sure a lot of quietly gay folks are wonderful soldiers, but that is not what we are talking about here.
Homosexuality is incompatable with any military service.
There is ZERO privacy and you are living one on top of the other.
The assigned living spaces on submarines is SMALLER than a dorm closet. (seen it myself)
This is absurd and like saying that the blood supply could be increased if homosexuals were allowed to donate blood despite being 90+% of all new aids cases (per CDC)
We should dump don't ask, don't tell into DO ask and DO expell.
That's exactly the problem!! Advocates of gays in the military conveniently overlook this when arguing their point. The problem isn't how the gays perform their job, it's the problems with unit cohesion that arise.
Combat units pride themselves on a macho image. Anyone that they feel is effeminate becomes a target, whether they're gay or not. They become a target in barracks. The military isn't like a college dorm. During exercises and actual operations, you have to spend 24 hours a day with other members of your unit. You have to sleep next to each other, shower next to each other, and you can't get away.
We had exercises where we crammed 520 people in a 3000 square foot shelter for two weeks. There wasn't enough room for everyone to even lay down at the same time. There was a six man shower that was constantly in operation. There was no air conditioning , there was always some activity going on so sleep was difficult, and little irritants became major problems. Throwing gays into that mix would cause even more problems.
There have been cases where gays have been beaten and killed. It makes the job of the supervisors, first sergeants, and commanders very difficult.
Remember when there was that rash of overboard "accidents" in the early days of the Clinton administration? It was around the first 100 days when Clinton pushed to allow the homosexualizing of the military.
This is straight from hitlary and her view of the military as a social experiment funded by federal tax dollars.
I rather prefer they stay in the closet.
The public was really accepting of the "queer eye show" humiliating that baseball team which shall remain nameless.
(s)something children can look up to as a role model.(/s)
What other BEHAVIOR gets the "hyphen american" moniker? There are no swinger americans, bondage americans, or even pedophile americans. HOWEVER this particular fetish is somehow special.
I think it is LONG overdue to legislate what the political APA refuses to do because of pervert politics. Prohibit homosexuals from adopting or working with children in ANY capacity.
Exactly. And that's the way we (in the military) want it.
This article is stating the obvious. We'd also boost recruitment if we let people who weren't citizens, or foreign nationals join the army.
I'm concerned about our recruiting problems. I don't really care one way or the other about letting gays in, but that's definitely NOT the solution to our problems in any way.
Hi Little Jeremiah,
You wrote: "Well, if the military gave up all standards altogher it would certainly boost recruitment. Serving in the military isn't a right, it's a privileged duty. Not everyone who wants to join is eligible."
You are spot-on. Civilians (and more precisely "agenda" civilians) have no understanding of the military and how it operates. It is NOT a social experiment. There is a chain of command and ANYTHING that breaks down that chain of command cannot be tolerated. That is why the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is bogus. Homosexuality is an addiction to perversion and as such, can never be kept discreet. The entire lifestyle revolves around sex and yes, that can easily break down the chain of command.
The pro "females in foxholes" crowd doesn't have a clue either. They have no concept of why or how the military works.
Brian
I know people who did not join just because Bill Clinton was C in C.
This is INTENDED as a moral breaker.
If homosexuals are so hell bent on a military career then they can join some euro homosexual permitting army.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.