A few comments on the draft and gays in the military

[bluestateguy]

The last two semesters (summer and spring) I have raised the draft issue in my class for discussion. I feel it is my responsibility to do so. Anyway, I have noticed something interesting, and that is that the students who I know for a fact to be conservative (and in Texas, that's a whole lot of them) suddenly saying that if there were a draft that the ban on gays in the military should be lifted. These are the same students, most of them anyway, who oppose letting gays legally marry, or adopt children, or be protected from being fired for their sexuality. So in other words, if there must be a draft, gays should be forced to serve even though this country does not give them the same rights of citizenship as it does for everybody else. And that's just fine with them.

[HawkerHurricane]

1. No Surprise.

"Draft Gays, not me!" is thier rallying cry. Actually, they're probably afraid that if they keep the ban on Gays, they're more likely to be drafted.

Ok, I'm a cynic.

[hadrons]

2. to college chickenhawks: gays = human shields for them ....

if there must be a draft, gays should be forced to serve even though this country does not give them the same rights of citizenship as it does for everybody else. And that's just fine with them.

inequality isn't a problem for them

[LibraLabSoldier]

3. Its funny,

They actually think that there arent any gays honorably serving now. I know at least a half dozen in the hospital i work at, and one who works directly with me. Gays serve just as honorably as everyone else. We dont have all that many conservatives in the military actually. Rich folks dont seem to feel the need to give anything back to their nation.

[Roy Robertson]

4. But what about "Unit Cohesion"???

Back when "gays in the military" was being "debated" in Congress, the right-wingers were terribly worried about Unit Cohesion. They seemed to fear that if they got within a few feet of a gay guy (gay gals didn't seem to scare them so much, for some reason...) their units might shrivel up and fall off. Or something. (Unit Adhesion?)

And they also spent an awful lot of time fretting over the "shower issue". They seemed to really enjoy that one: they spent days on it, and even travelled down to Norfolk to look into an honest-to-god shower, with the TV cameras there to display their bravery to a grateful nation. (btw: Barney Frank had a wonderful comment at the time: "We are already taking showers with them. Do they think we have ourselves dry-cleaned?")

But now that these chicken-hawks are faced with the very real prospect of having their units shot off, they have grown a new set of prioritites, as usual, and the prospect of dropping the soap in one of those steamy showers (ah, the fog of war...) holds no terrors for them!

[Bluebear]

5. Thank you for that & Sam Nunn is a POS for his role in it

I remember them going into a submarine or some field trip and some senator from Indiana (Dan Coats? Was that his name?) lamenting how 'close' the bunks were and clucking about how gays would really threaten unit cohesion if (implied:) the troops couldn't even sleep in peace because some queer might be lusting after them.

[Roy Robertson]

6. It's fun to speculate

on what the results might be if they bring back the draft and they still keep their "don't ask don't tell" policy.

For one thing, I bet there will be a drastic increase in the incidence of homosexuality in 18 to 21 year old conservatives. And there will be more confusion than ever about the definition of "chicken-hawk".

More and more people will start checking the little "homosexual tendencies" box at their pre-induction physicals, and the Selective Service folks will start missing their monthly manpower quotas. Homosexuality will no longer be a faith-based condition. They'll have to come up with some kind of a test you have to take in order to prove you are gay. ("Question 12: Discuss a Cowboys tight end") The mind fairly boggles...

[wellstone_democrat]

7. I see the same plus one other addition

suddenly the same young men who also don't think much of women in the military are vocal about women being drafted. When I pushed this a bit to see what they had in mind, I was shocked to hear the SAME men who earlier didn't think women should be doing *clerical* work in combat zones advocating that they be drafted AND be in front line infantry units. Why? Because it was only *fair* that women be drafted but that it would be *unfair* if they got the "easy jobs in offices that pushed men into the line of fire."

I pointed out that the ERA was defeated in the 1970s on the issue of military draft for women being *wrong* and that didn't phase them a bit. I was stunned simply because it was ONLY the draft that brought out a willingness to have gay men in the military (even "out" men) and women in direct combat roles.

I then asked if drafting gay men should then result in the *full rights* of Americans including marriage. Nope, "that's different."

Ah, the delights of selfish interests...