War Slows Discharge Of Gay Linguists

[davidinalameda]

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon05/11/111705military.htm

Only one Arabic linguist was discharged from the military for violating "don't ask, don't tell", the ban on gays serving opening, in fiscal year 2004, according to records obtained by an advocacy group.

In the first 10 years of "don't ask, don't tell," the military discharged 54 Arabic and nine Farsi speakers for violating the policy, according to the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military. In fiscal year 2004, however, there was just one Arabic and no Farsi speakers discharged, the center said Wednesday. That compares to at least three enlisted personnel discharged the previous year.

"The military does not like to admit firing gay Arabic linguists during a dire shortage because the public doesn't understand why we would rather fire gays than have enough Arabic linguists to translate intercepted cables," said Aaron Belkin, director of the center based at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

[Botany]

1. So they are gay ..... why should anybody care?

Straight guy here. The stupidity of firing somebody
because they are gay makes my head spin.

Hire somebody because he/she can get the job done not because
of what they do in their private lives.

Gays have been the latest "boogie man" the right wing can
trot out ..... in the 50s it was commies. The other side needs
people to hate to hide just how weak they are.

[Occulus]

2. But get this:

It's a double standard. In peacetime, you need to get the hell out NOW, but when we're at war, well, NOW they need us to fight and die for them.

And I do intend to paint it as 'us against them' because that's precisely what it is. Not, 'them', the heterosexuals, but 'them', the bigots.

When I was eighteen I considered joining the military in some branch of service or other. I suppose many young men my age did. What stopped me was knowing that, once again, I would be stuck in a place I was not truly welcome. I eventually avoided joining the military for the same reasons I avoided church: I did not, from the very beginning, feel welcome.

I should put on a line by itself, I've known I was 'different' from the day I started school. It's only one more indication that it's an instinctive thing.

I really, really resent the whole translator issue. Once again, the bigots have shoved the shame of being torn down my throat. Were there a draft, those same people wanting gays out of the military would be the very first ones to point fingers at the gay community for intentionally providing an "excuse" to get out of it. People who actually are gay would get publicly horsewhipped either way, which serves the bigots' goals quite nicely, thank you very much.

Which is another reason I don't think being gay is a choice, and should never have been an issue for the military in the first place. Who would choose this sort of result?

Mark my words: if there is ever a draft under the Republicans, gays and lesbians will be expected to serve, and 'being gay' will suddenly vanish as an exclusion to military service.

They'll punk us, easy. Watch.

[TaleWgnDg]

3. I strongly doubt that GWBush and Company will ever reinstate

the draft. Why is that so? Because it would mean more not less anti-War sentiment and protests in the streets of America! Bush and his Administration's poll numbers would tank further too!
.

[mitchtv]

4. they want to keep the restrictions, and use unwritten "policies"

Sooo, then after your service , they can toss you out, no benefits, no pension. They will use you for many years if necessary, and toss you out in the year before retirement. Its been done like that for years.