Here’s a novel idea: While the Dan Chois of the world can run around America insisting openly gay soldiers are good for the country, how about some openly straight soldiers running around America insisting, uh, the same thing?
allied forces
Is the Argument to Repeal DADT Stronger When Straight Soldiers Make It?
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alan brickman
Lots of straight soldiers know the good soldiers maybe gay..but they have their back ..and in a warfront..thats all that is important and matters…no jokes queens please…
Mr. Cox
Thank you Patrick Murphy for doing what Barack Obama and Harry Reid should have done but didn’t do because they were more concerned about their political careers.
Patrick Murphy truly represents the good in Washington (if it still existed). People like him and Dennis Kucinich in my mind are some of the few people left we can trust in D.C. This not just goes on gay rights but on military/industrial complex, executive powers, etc. Patrick Murphy deserves a lot of praise and respect from this website and from gays everywhere.
The Gay Numbers
Yes, because politics is perception. It is good p.r. to have straigh soldier support us. We all want that perfect world where such things should not matter. Unfortunately in the one that we live in, perception is king.
Mike
It makes a big difference. We need more straight ally soldiers to speak up like this.
And it reminds me, and I’d like to refer back to a January 2007 Letter to the Editor in the NYTimes, in response to General Shalikashvili’s landmark OpEd that DADT should be repealed. Charles Mitchell, a straight service member serving in Iraq at the time, wrote from Baghdad this eloquent defense of not only gay soldiers, but all the straight soldiers who wish to serve with them:
“I am on my second yearlong tour in Iraq, the first having ended 15 months ago. IN MY OPINION, TROOPS HERE WANT ONLY SOMEONE NEXT TO THEM WHO IS DEPENDABLE IN A FIREFIGHT, KNOWS FIRST AID AND KEEPS A GOOD MORALE. WE DON’T CARE IF THAT PERSON IS MALE, FEMALE, GAY, STRAIGHT, WHITE, BLACK, CHEATS ON HIS WIFE OR HER HUSBAND, IS CATHOLIC OR JEWISH, RICH OR POOR.
“WHEN YOU LIVE IN CLOSE QUARTERS IN COMBAT OVER A LONG PERIOD, ALL YOU CARE ABOUT IS WHETHER THE PERSON KNOWS HIS JOB AND IS TRUSTWORTHY.
“WITH ALL THAT IS GOING ON HERE, IT AMAZES ME THAT ‘GAYS IN THE MILITARY’ IS STILL BEING DEBATED BY THOSE **OUT OF UNIFORM**.”
Amen. Charles Mitchell, Patrick Murphy, and Genevieve Chase, Thank you.
TANK
Of course it is. People are cattle. People respond to orders or are persuaded through manipulation…and in this case, you’re damn right that a heterosexual male has more credibility in terms of social privilege than a homosexual, regardless of reality.
rick
yes.
Richard in DC
The DADT Policy it is fundamentally insulting to all members of our armed services, as it not only legally establishes GLBT people as inferior to heterosexuals, but also clearly states that heterosexual soldiers are so stricken by fear of GLBT people that they are unable to perform their duties if GLBT soldiers are present. Heterosexual soldiers have a very vested interest in the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, if they do not wish to be known around the world as cowards; which clearly weakens national security.
Mike
It also paints all straight service members as homophobic, which is definitely an insult
Rick
I believe Patrick Murphy is a stalking horse for Mr. Obama. I also believe it’s going to work.
Regarding using straight supporters to make this happen only makes sense. Our rights are only going to be won thru straight people telling other straight people that the bigotry has to stop. This is what happens in all civil right fights. Black people didn’t get a break until white people made other white people stop their bigotry.
SM
Yes, straight soldiers should speak up against DADT.
Read the book “They Thought They Were Free: The Germans” by Milton Mayer.