'Do Gays Unsettle You?'

[haele]

59. Nope, had a lesbian rent-mate when I was in the military a couple decades back.

I was straight, but it was never a problem because we were both in the "first women at sea" cadre, and honestly at that time (1979 - 1981) that was a worse issue in the Navy than being Gay was. Probably about 12% of the women on my ship at that time were lesbian, and maybe another 20% bi. In 1980, 1/4 of the women assigned to the ship were given initially letters of discharge for being lesbian.
Oddly enough, the letter went to all the senior and black female sailors, no matter what their marital status actually was. Even stranger, the division I was worked in was overseen by a command other than the ship's operational command, and none of the four of us women in that division ever saw those letters - and I would suppose it was because the senior officer who was trying to "clean up the ship" by having his yeoman (who was on the list herself) type up that letter to get rid of the female troublemakers when the CO was on a month's emergency leave, didn't want to get into a pissing contest with a Rear Admiral. She tipped the rest of the women off, and the ACLU was called that day before the letters were even signed, forcing a courts-martial trial, which pretty much torpedoed the career of both that officer and the CO.

I can say that because the woman I shared a two-bedroom apartment with was one of those accused of being a lesbian, and the "all-ladies" parties she threw at the apartment were part of the proof used at her courts-martial, but I, a much younger female without an obvious boyfriend or male significant other, wasn't? Also, why didn't NIS (NCIS to you younger kids) ever interview me?
The only person who ever sat down and asked me anything was the ACLU lawyer for my rent-mate.

I digress.

Anyway, I've never found any difference in loving or in a "benefit to the community at large" between hetero-, homo-, or trans couples. The only difference seems to come between relationships based on either committed partnership, co-dependencies, or serial monogamy.

Of course, I don't judge other people and their private relationships based on my personal preferences or religion. That's a particularly limited way of looking at the world.

Haele