Is the Military Ready for Gays? Marine Corps Times Thinks So. Readers Not So Much
THE SHOT: Just a few days before DADT is set to be out and done within the military, the Marine Corp Times is putting gays on the cover of its September issue.
Kind of.
Real faces would have been too affronting, so an abstract visual will have to do. Props on the bitchingly bold headline though.
Servicemembers United is taking credit for the cover, saying that it pitched the story, recruited sources and even conducted some of the interviews. Not to anyone’s surprise, the feature is generating some debate among readers.
A comment on Marine Corp Times:
This article is absolutley [sic] disgraceful. Not because of the subject, but becuase [sic] of the content. I do not need to know about how gay men and women handle a shower situation. Just way too much information.
Au contraire, we must know more about how gay soldiers handle that shower situation…
Had they kicked all the homos out of the USMC, there would have been no USMC.
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Always, ALWAYS with the goddam bathrooms. And it’s not just gays. One of the arguments against the ERA was “OMG Panic! Teh ebil gubmint will require unisex bathrooms!”
We’re a nation of fucking fifth-graders.
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@the crustybastard:
Thank you.
This has obsessed over for decades. Enough.
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Dear America, since 1992 LGBT citizens have served openly in the Canadian military.
So far, so good. If we can do it then why can’t you?
Seriously. Why not?
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@Little Kiwi: Why not? 3 reasons.
Too much misogyny.
Too little maturity.
And a stranglehold grip on politics by so-called “conservatives” who cannot live without a wedge issue to keep people from discussing actual issues challenging our country today.
If a military man or woman is openly gay, the religious nuts can no longer pretend, like Ahmadinijad, that gays don’t exist, or that we aren’t “mainstream enough” to matter.
And god forbid that they might actually owe their freedom or life to a gay soldier. Such knowledge might actually cause James Dobson’s head to explode, no matter how long overdue that event might be.
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They should talk about what it was like before when they had to keep their sexuality a secret to now, where they can serve openly. What this means and how it has affected them. They should have testimonials of how it has affected them, their family, and their fellow soldiers. That would put a whole personal side to the whole change. That would show the real impact it has had on the marine corps.
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Ok, but I actually went through and read all the comments and some really amazing lesbian Marines basically took over the thread, called the bigots out on their insanity, and even changed at least one persons mind on the issue. So while there was a lot of immature crap on there, it is nice to see that in practice the stupidity probably won’t last forever :-)
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Interesting what a little time can change.
“I do not need to know about how gay men and women handle a shower situation. Just way too much information.” says quote in story above.
Yet, just about one year earlier people in congress were arguing AGAINST DADT REPEAL based upon the very issue of gay men in the communal shower.
It was vital back then to focus upon the subject with malignant intensity.
So what the hell actually changed???