Pentagon Lists Homosexuality As Disorder

[NNN0LHI]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MILITARY_GAYS?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, decades after mental health experts abandoned that position.

The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities, and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders.

Critics said the reference underscores the Pentagon's failing policies on gays, and adds to a culture that has created uncertainty and insecurity around the treatment of homosexual service members, leading to anti-gay harassment.

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jeremy M. Martin said the policy document is under review.

[unschooler]

1. So they aren't a security risk, and they're actually able to shoot as

well as the next soldier....

Gotta come up with SOME reason to keep 'em out. :eyes:

[Che_Nuevara]

2. "Have you ever seen a fag fire a gun?"

</sarcasm>

[ccpup]

3. Actually,

yes, I have! This big, strapping soldier in a video fired off his gun once. Oh wait ... on second thought, maybe it wasn't a gun. Um ... never mind. :eyes:

[saltpoint]

4. Alexander had male lovers in the 300s b.c.e. It didn't impede his

military accomplishments, which were considerable.

The U.S. military has always argued that lesbians and gay men in the military are somehow a threat to morale. Alexander's example puts the lie to that, doesn't it? His forces conquered most of the known world. Sounds like a successful military campaign to me.

[unschooler]

5. They're a threat to morale only if your "morale" or "unit cohesion"

is based on hatred of gays, as in "Gee, that gay guy isn't any fun, since he doesn't want to go out and beat up gays with us." :eyes:

[saltpoint]

6. Yeah! Those lesbians and gays can be real party-poopers!

The military's "morale" argument is ridiculous. I wonder if they know how ridiculous they sound when they make it?

And the "security risk" argument is way off, too. Most (or all) of the people nabbed for selling secrets to the Russians and Chinese have been straight.

Decades ago shrinks removed same-sex attraction from their list of disorders, so the military is off-track there as well.

No wonder we're losing the Iraq war.

[NNN0LHI]

7. That reminds me of a story that a guy I worked with told me

He told me when he was in the army him and a couple of comrades used to go out and pick up gay guys and bring them back to a motel room and beat hell out of them up for laughs.

He said one time they brought a gay guy back and the gay guy kicked all three of their asses real good.

He said they got a new hobby after that.

Don

[unschooler]

9. LOL. Of course the guy who beat them up is unqualified to serve.

:eyes:

[Che_Nuevara]

8. Ever heard of the Thebian Lovers' Army?

It was them, not the Spartans, that beat the Persians.

[saltpoint]

10. They obviously are omitted from high school textbooks but in some

of the biographies of Alexander they're mentioned.

The "morale" argument REALLY goes out the window with the Theban Band, doesn't it.

Rumsfeld's "new army" concepts may seem revolutionary to conventional approaches in some major strategic aspects but the military is too often run by far-right thinkers. Lesbians and gays shold be permitted to serve in the United States just as they are in many other nations' forces, and just as they have throughout history.