With a promise the Pentagon “cannot be forced (for example by court order or subpoena) to disclose information that may identify you,” the heterosexual spouses of American servicemembers are receiving their own questionnaire to see how they and their families will be impacted if a gay soldier is allowed to tape a poster of his boyfriend up on the wall. But what, exactly, does the Defense Department want to know?
Many of the same things they wanted to know from active duty soldiers. Politico scored a copy of the survey, which includes questions like (and we’re paraphrasing) “Do you know any queers, even at work?” “Does your spouse believe he or she has ever worked with a homosexual?” “If the military repeals DADT, would you like the law explained to you in glossy heavy-stock pamphlets or actual courses?” “Would repealing DADT scare your husband or wife so much he or she would quit the military?”
Yes, that is the inanity of these questions.
These are the questions social scientists would generally be interested in while conducting research. But how pleasant to see the U.S. military take into consideration whether bigoted spouses would uproot their families if they found out they were living next to known homosexuals.
How about we take this to the next level?
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axos
I didn’t know the Military were so sensitive and considerate of people’s feelings. I mean, Military service implies danger, a life and death situation, which I personally would feel to be a much bigger issue for myself and my spouse than this.
If the Military distributed a questionnaire about life and death, the number of servicemen might very well diminish once the spouses were encouraged to think closer about it.
christopher di spirito
Delay.
Stall.
Punt.
Obama has no intention of pushing the Dumbo leadership to write legislation for him to sign repealing the viciously homophobic, Clinton-era Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.
Our best hope is if a repeal motion is attached to a defense appropriation bill. Then, the GOP can’t vote against it or they will be labeled “anti-military.”
Obama done duped us. But, at least we now know better.
Chitown Kev
This is disgusting on the part of the Pentagon and the CIC.
Steve
The very idea of asking spouses about this is blatantly absurd of course, but at least this survey isn’t biased like the one of the servicemembers themselves clearly was. The questions are fairly harmless.
And apparently someone at the Pentagon has finally realized that it’s a better idea to talk to the partners of gay servicemembers:
http://www.metroweekly.com/news/?ak=5514
So they may not be as clueless and hypocritical as they appear in interviews. Like saying it’s important to talk to the ones “who are most affected” when talking about straight people.
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
@Steve:
First, forget the shared delusion that including “gay spouses” is going to change a goddamn thing.
More importantly, you apparently missed THE most devious part of the survey. Under question #15, “What are the MOST IMPORTANT factors you and your spouse consider when making decisions about his or her future in the military? PLEASE MARK UP TO 3 FACTORS,” optional answers include: “Our children’s well-being.” Was it necessary for them to have actually written it as, “Knowing my children are safe from fags” for people not to get their intent?
In the last survey, it was implying that servicemembers might be in danger from the fags in their bunks, showers, and bathrooms. Now those who oppose an end to the ban are hinting to mothers and fathers about dangers to their children if the fags are allowed anywhere on base or in military family housing.
From Anita Bryant’s “Save Our Children” crusade in 1977 through passage of Prop 8 in 2008 and repealing marriage equality in Maine last year, the bigots always go for the jugular of fear about The Children. Now it’s the Pentagon’s turn.
At least one gay group imagines having meetings to play patty-cake with the Pentagon will repair the damage, somehow not getting that the homophobic horse has left the barn. Both self-fulfilling prophecy surveys have been paid for and are out there. WHEN is all of Gay, Inc., going to put down the Kool Aid and step away from the Obama-Gates Clown Car and stop believing that the POWERS-that-be actually WANT to end the ban but it’s just that someone at Westat keeps slipping up, and UNITE to publicly DENOUNCE not just the transparent motivation behind “the study’s” execution but the very idea of it as they SHOULD have when it was announced in February?
“The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”. – Audre Lorde.
[img]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs156.ash2/41141_1249585059396_1822575019_492744_1936573_n.jpg[/img]
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
This complete farce is the biggest bitchslap in the faces of the Gays since this administration was sworn in. The whole concept of the military is the recruits become for all practical purposes a peice of the machinery in the working of the system. The cohesivness is what makes the military work. The recruits have zero say in any aspect of their lives in the military from what they are going to eat to when they go bed to what they wear. Never before has there been an attempt to guage the “feelings” of the military prior to any change. The change is instituted and you either accept it or are court martialed. Plain and simple no discussion……….
jason
Obama and the Democrats are going to be deserted by the gays in droves come November. He deserves it. Has there ever been a President who has ticked all the kamikaze boxes as comprehensively as Obama in such a short period of time? I doubt it.
Obama has pissed off the Right and shitted on his base. Nuff said.
axos
@jason:
So Republicans deserve you?
Kev C
I think what many are missing, and this is true if you’ve ever met the people who “work” at the Pentagon, is that they are bureaucrats. Lazy, confused, parasite bureaucrats who don’t know what to do or how to do it. They aren’t deliberately stalling, they’re just dunderheaded knobs. If you’ve ever wondered why the US hasn’t won any wars since 1945, it’s because of the people working at the Pentagon at clueless and lame. Really, they are. Many of them suffer from PTSD and are emotionally unstable. Many of them are just looking for money and don’t care. A lot of pathetic people work at the Pentagon, it’s true.
Kev C
Oh, and they have more marital and relationship problems than average. A very dysfunctional lot. I can almost see the process now:
The President is thinking about ending DADT. What do we do?
I don’t know, do you know?
No, I don’t know. Maybe we should ask the soldiers.
Yeah, that’s a good idea.
OK, we surveyed the soldiers but they don’t know either.
Well then, ask the soldiers’ wives, they might know.
Yeah, my wife watches Big Brother on CBS. She knows a lot about the Gays.
Good, get on it.
Yes Sir.
axos
@Kev C: Funny! And I’m beginning to believe it might be true as well.
David Ehrenstein
“Dear Military Spouse: Do you think your husband is likely to dump you if he gets to work alongside a Hot Throbbing Gayboi who looks like he stepped right out of a Bel Ami catatlogue?”
Jon
We have the people behind us and we will keep on going higher and higher in gay approval ratings. Just give full equality 5 to 15 years and we will have it. Just gotta be open and flaunt it!!
Steve
This “survey” is truly offensive, just like the first survey of the troops. Anyone who doesn’t understand how offensive it is should just: Substitute “black” for “gay”; Substitute “segregation” for “DADT”; Substitute “negro” for “homosexual”; and then re-read the questions.
The bigots, of course, claim not to understand that they are being offensive. They claim they are just watching out for the interests of their straight (substitute, “white”) soldiers. Of course, both claims are false.
The real purpose of all this surveying is to find an excuse to stop the repeal of DADT (substitute, racial integration) from happening at all. In that sense, the second survey is a good sign — it means the first survey did not the excuse they were looking for.
Syl
@christopher di spirito: “Obama done duped us. But, at least we now know better.”
DO WE?! Who will the majority of LGBTs vote for this fall? People get angry and grumble and say they’ve learned and never again, but never follow through and change their behavior! Write your legislators, your state Democratic conference, and tell them that, because of their inaction, that this fall you’re voting for the Republicans-or, better yet, a third party! Sure, the third party candidates won’t get elected even if every single queer voter votes for them, but if they get noticeably more votes than usual, and if the Dems know that it’s US voting for those candidates and why, then they’ll have to act!
Dan
If “professional” soldiers cannot handle someone gay fighting alongside them, then will someone please take the nuclear weapons away from these “professional” soldiers. If you aren’t mature enough to handle having gay co-workers, you should not have access to weapons of mass destruction!