Because the Pentagon isn’t granting immunity (!) to gay soldiers who want to speak up about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell during their silly 10-month review, they’re spending taxpayer dollars to hire an outside firm to do the quizzing. Yup, gay soldiers are now permitted to speak freely to a hired contractor but not their own commanding officers.
Yes, that’s the world we live in under the byzantine rules of DADT.
The Pentagon is hiring Westat, “a Maryland research firm with experience surveying military communities,” to quiz some 350,000 military servicemembers and their families, which includes The Gays. It’s a comprehensive survey, where they’ll “gather the views of troops of all ranks, including officer and enlisted personnel, young and old, married and unmarried, and those serving in different types of units, from combat to medicine.” And it will cost taxpayers $4.4 million.
How does it all work? First, respondents are asked whether they know any gay people in their units; they’re then asked whether they think allowing them to serve openly would effect the unit’s ability to serve. Supposedly, because gay soldiers are speaking to an outside contractor, being honest about their sexuality doesn’t qualify as “telling.” But raise your hand if you have confidence a military contractor, or the Pentagon itself, isn’t in the business of data mining. Gay soldiers have been taught for decades to keep quiet, or else — we’re not sure how free they’ll to whisper in the ear of somebody the Pentagon is paying to collect information.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Just take a moment to think about this: Because federal legislators created a law forbidding gay soldiers from being openly about their sexuality, and these legislators are now considering killing the law, the taxpayer-funded Pentagon must now pay someone else to see whether gay soldiers want the law repealed. It’s not just a logic fail; it’s a policy fail.
The ultimate policy fail, of course, comes from the notion that servicemembers (and their families!!) should even have a say in the matter. Even if the survey results come back showing overwhelming military support for repealing DADT, the decision to repeal should be made because it’s the right thing to do ethically, and the right thing to do for national security.
myrios123
I think asking an outside company to conduct qualitative research is actually a good idea… it promotes confidentiality in a time closeted military personnel could lose their job, benefits, ranks, and privileges. At least the taxpayers money is being used to study a current and complex problem instead of wasted.
papparon
I think most people know that this survey is a stall tactic to provide time to stir up controversy and disseminate misinformation so as to mask the real truth, which is:
The very idea of asking an uneducated majority to vote on the rights of a discriminated minority is not only a joke, but it is the very reason our founding fathers established a Republic form of government and not a true democracy. To protect minorities from oppression by the majority.
By definition, then this “vote” on DADT goes against the very principles upon which this nation is founded.
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
And the winner is Papparon!
But first, with respect, the lead in’s summary is something of a mish mash of the original source article in the “Boston Globe,” but the concern about exposure is entirely valid.
ONCE AGAIN: “Don’t Tell” means do not tell ANYONE at ANYTIME or PLACE.
There are exceptions but even your Mama isn’t one of them. Until the changes announced in March, they only included attorneys and security clearance investigators, the latter a result of an Executive Order by Pres. Clinton. The changes added parties civilians take for granted: clergy and medical and mental health personnel.
But people participating in this PHONY “study” would NOT be officially protected.
Now to Papparon’s point: the idea of asking opinions of members of the military…and WORSE, their families, their “influencers” and the “broader military community” whoever the hell they are though those are EXACT additional catergories Gates has insisted must be polled…about others’ civil rights is both anti-American AND absurd. It’s even worse than popular-generated civilian voter referendums like Prop H8TE, as heinous as they are, because this is something ARBITRARILY decided upon by one man….pulled entirely out of Robert Gates’ Republican ass!
And, yes, it’s obviously a three-stage bomb meant to blow up repeal.
Stage 1: delay a vote on repeal until after the DEFAUTH process [considered the only viable vehicle for repeal] is over.
Stage 2: delay a vote on repeal until after midterms when there will likely be too few pro-repeal members of Congress left to pass it under any circumstances.
Stage 3 [the failsafe]: in the unlikely event there are enough pro-repeal members left, construct “The Study” in such a way that the results amount to: “We asked the force just like you agreed we should and they all said, DO NOT REPEAL!”
And, there is another factor that inexplicably and INDEFENSIBLY Gay Inc. is not talking about: Gates also said on Feb. 2nd that if and when repeal does happen he wants AT LEAST ANOTHER YEAR to “implement”—READ: keep discharging gays.
A year ago this week, Pentagon spokesperson Geoff Morrell had a bad couple of days. On the first day, he was asked if the Pentagon was working on Obama’s promise to repeal DADT. He said they weren’t.
Of course, a couple days later, after obviously having been sent to the proverbial woodshed for a paddlin’, he said that he was wrong and they WERE having discussions…tho about a way that would not “be disruptive of the troops,” which, of course, was bullshit on two accounts.
But there was another truth Morrell unintentionally told that first day, and I quote him directly from the official DOD transcript, emphasis mine:
And, the author of the “Boston Globe” article about the $4.4 MILLION taxpayer dollars the bigots are spending, Bryan Bender, was also the author of an article that too few gays paid attention to. It appeared less than two weeks after Obama was sworn in and revealed that he had already decided to surrender control of DADT’s fate to the homophobic dinosaurs in the Pentagon’s Jurassic Park.
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Rich
In an interview with Sen. McCain today, Tony Perkins of the ultra-bigoted group, FRC, announced that he is having discussions with members of the DOD working group on DADT repeal about the unanticipated consequences of repeal. Does anyone honestly believe this study is going to be fair or include honest voices from the LGBT community? They’re talking to Tony Perkins to get advice at the Pentagon!!! This is purely disgusting.
The study group also visited Marines at Camp Lejeune this week to get their opinions on the subject. Camp Lejeune is located in the heart of one of the more conservative locations in this country. You aren’t going to find very many open gays and lesbians enjoying life in Jacksonville, North Carolina. I guess the real question is, will the study group visit Marines in Camp Pendleton where you can go to any gay or lesbian bar in the greater San Diego area on a Saturday night and find dozens of Marines and Sailors socializing. Somehow, I suspect Tony Perkins is advising the study group not to include Camp Pendleton on their list of places to visit.
JamesStone
4.4 MILLION!!!!! OMG!!! How ridiculous!! What a waste of taxpayer dollars!!! This country is wallowing in deficits and this is a good way to spend money?
The study has already been done. All they have to do is look at the military in countries in Europe and Israel that have no ban or have lifted the ban years ago. It is just “business as usual.”
Rob Moore
All of us know in our heart-of-hearts that Obama is playing us on this issue. He doesn’t want to expend any of his remaining political capital on “fierce” advocacy for a bunch of fags. I might have believed him at first, but after weeks turned into months and months into a year with NO substantive action from the White House on our concerns, my belief has turned into cynical mistrust. Mistrust because we hear words without consequent action and cynicism because we are back to the lesser of two evils.
B
No. 6 · Rob Moore wrote, “All of us know in our heart-of-hearts that Obama is playing us on this issue. He doesn’t want to expend any of his remaining political capital on “fierce” advocacy for a bunch of fags.”
What political capital are you talking about? According to http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-6198284-503544.html 70 percent of the American public supports gays and lesbians serving in the military (although curiously, only 59% support “homosexuals” serving in the military). We can speculate on why the wording makes a difference, but regardless, a solid majority of the American public is in favor of repealing DADT. Given that, there is no political capital to lose!
Zachary
this stupid f#(%*% country and their bullshit is so tiring. Just do the right thing and make it so gays can serve. Or lose the war, because you laid off too many interpreters. Seriously, I give up. This govt and all these politicans can suck it. OH RIGHT, THEY ALREADY ARE… IN THE AIRPORT BATHROOM.
– A 21 year old who is very jaded and upset after the election of yet another PHONY to the “White House” aka, the cyclone of blackness where NOTHING IS ACCOMPLISHED AND LIES ARE FORTOLD