Military Academy Cadets Choose Gay Character As Role Model
The cadets at the U.S. Military Academy announced their nominees for the 2nd Annual Cadet Choice Award, which is given to the movie character that best exemplifies West Point leadership. Their choices?
- Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight
- Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg in Valkyrie
- Dr. Henry Walton “Indiana” Jones, Jr. in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- John Hancock in Hancock
- Harvey Milk in Milk
- James Bond in Quantum of Solace
Cadet public affairs officer Cristin Browne explains the purpose of the award:
“West Point is all about producing leaders of character. Leaders influence people to accomplish the mission and improve the organization. A leader of character seeks to discover the truth, decides what is right, and acts accordingly. Furthermore, West Point values are Duty, Honor, Country. That leadership, those values, are what this award celebrates.â€
The winner will be announced in mid-February.
How awesome is it that the cadets chose to include Harvey Milk in their list of action heroes?
Further proof that younger people just don’t care about gay vs. straight.
DADT maybe less of a major cultural shift than we think.
Very awesome.
How cute! How dumb!
An award to the best movie character?? What does that mean?
Why not award a real live person whose actually doing something instead of a Hollywood construct. Or not- c’est la vie…
Because stories are important too, Ed. Always have been.
As with the anti-gay military policies that persisted in the UK the anti-gay military policies of the US are politics, not related to military performance. Once the political resistance was overcome in the UK the military changed quickly & easily. The same will be true in the US, though there is definitely an ugly undercurrent of evangelicalism in the US military that is reinforced (nurtured) by anti-gay policies that will (& certainly has) made noise disproportionate to its size or importance.
Now that’s encouraging. {:-D
Change will come, but the military academies especially the Air Force Academy need to be purged of the religious fundamentalism that has taken root.