Question about DADT for DU military folk,

[patrick t. cakes]

I've been curious how the rank and file feel about DADT and gays in general.
Is serving while being gay commonly accepted and just not spoken about, or is it anathema in military culture?
And when people do begin serving openly, will there be backlash in the form of unspoken discrimination or even violence?

Stereotyping would lead me to believe the military to be a macho culture, not readily accepting of gays, but I tend to see the
military as it own subculture and very supportive of its members too.

Just pondering.

Glad it passed, I've recently had a niece and cousin come out, and everyone in the family has accepted them warmly. I think it's even brought the family closer in some respects.

:grouphug:

[Stevenmarc]

1. That's what the whole Pentagon DADT study was all about

[patrick t. cakes]

3. And what did it find out? n/t

[Stevenmarc]

4. Google is our friend

[patrick t. cakes]

5. so is DU, its a discussion board last I checked

the idea being to post a topic and chat about it.

Thanks though

[BOG PERSON]

2. duhhhh im' in the military

i likes chocomut ice cream. they should not alow the gays n the R-mee

[Lex]

6. The Pentagon study (article at Huff Po)

"The Pentagon released its much-anticipated study on repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) on Tuesday, finding that 70 percent of servicemembers believe the change in policy would have a positive, mixed or no effect. The announcement was accompanied by a full-throated endorsement of allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly by the study's co-authors, who concluded that there is little risk of disruption to the military if implementation is properly carried out."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/30/dadt-repeal-endorsed-in-p_n_789916.html

[patrick t. cakes]

9. Thanks for the link

I wasn't aware of the study. 70% is good numbers.

[Bobbieo]

12. It is the 30% I worry about.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Oh they will get over it

they will either leave (A few) or most will grumble, moan and continue to do their jobs.

Yes I expect very few incidents... but the operative word is FEW.

Hell I had the pleasure of having one of the FEW one sided conversations somewhere else. We lived.

[noamnety]

7. I served in the 80s

We had some openly gay people in the barracks. Wasn't an issue.

My husband works as a civilian on an army post, he took me to a (not legal in this state) wedding between two women, one of whom was his coworker, also an army civilian. Pretty much her whole office was invited and showed up, including the army officers from her office.

[qazplm]

8. almost 1 million people under arms

so pretty hard to do better than the survey from our own personal experiences, but my tiny slice is that most folks aren't too upset by it at least out in the open although a handful don't like the idea.

I think it's neither commonly accepted nor anathema but somewhere in the mushy middle. However, my guess is that most problems will come from older folks as today's youth just doesn't care about homosexuality anymore.

[patrick t. cakes]

10. Agreed. Most kids i know see the debate as ridiculous,

most adults too for that matter. I've worked with some army vets in the recent past though, and they were extremely homophobic
and lead one to believe the entire military was as well.

Good to hear they were in the small minority.

[Aristus]

11. I got out of the Army in 1993, right around the time DADT went into effect.

There was a lot of debate on the issue at the time, most of it not as supportive as it has become in the interim. I think gay issues having such a high profile in the 90's and into the 2000's made it a lot easier for many to accept.

But when I was in ( I was a tank crewman; a lot of macho tough-talking, swaggering stuff going on) and I brought up the subject of gays serving, I got a lot of "Oh, yeah? Well what if you were showering next to one?" responses.

It was tough to bear. Even though I'm straight, I had just discovered that I was fairly popular in Louisville, KY's gay community at the time, due to my participation in the Vogue Theater's RHPS Floor Show. I was my friends' pet "gay-friendly" soldier, a comparative novelty at the time.

[patrick t. cakes]

15. Ha! thats funny shit,

did you get any of the tanksters to go to the show?

and what is RHPS?

[Aristus]

17. Yeah, I actually got a number of my buddies to go along on Saturday nights.

RHPS is the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Huge fan following, gay and straight. And my more open-minded buddies were rewarded for going along with their discovery of just who hangs around a lot with gay men: straight women! B-) We had a lot of fun.

Here's a pic of me as a character in the RHPS named Eddie. These are members of my fan club. (And yes, I had a fan club. Men and women; gay and straight. These are the straight women. :evilgrin: ) :

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. The Pentagon study found that mostly

rank and file don't give a fuck.

My husband's commands had gay personnel and nobody gave a rats ass as long as they did their work, like everybody else.

And me, in another place, I had a very one sided conversation. Again, I did not care as long as people did their job. It is not contagious.

Oh and the modern military, they are ahead of the curve in that sense, lower ranks that is. The split you see is generational. (Why some senior officers are having some issues)

[SheilaT]

16. As a legal senior citizen,

what amazes me and impresses me the most about young people these days is how the vast majority of them are completely casual and unconcerned about stuff that used to get us all atwitter back in the day.