According to the Navy Times: Women are 14% of the military but 46% of those ousted for being gay.

[Captain Hilts]

I had no idea the numbers were that skewed.

It seems it's as anti-woman as anti-gay.

[enlightenment]

1. The services have always been skewed -

in the early 80s they instituted new child care regulations that were incredibly onerous; six different persons who could take your child/ren at 24 hours notice for an unlimited amount of time. You had to provide proof, of course; a form kept on file. Alternatives? Give the children up, legally, or leave the service.

Not specifically addressed at women, of course, but statistically it hit single parents the hardest . . . and the vast majority of those were women. Big surprise.

[scheming daemons]

2. The numbers don't necessarily mean what you think they mean

It could mean that gay women are drawn to military service in greater percentages than gay men are.


Example.... Say there are 100 people in a military unit, 86 men and 14 women.

And say.... 6 of the men are gay, and 6 of the women are gay.

And say.... all 12 get ousted.

That would mean that 50% of those ousted were gay women, even though women are only 14% of the unit.




And actually, when you think about the fact that a disproportionate number of gay women exhibit traditionally "masculine" behaviors and ideals when compared with straight women, it is not out of line to see how these numbers ended up the way they did.


Perhaps straight women are not as interested in military service as gay women. That's certainly a valid theory.

[Captain Hilts]

3. The interesting thing would be to know who's filing the complaints. Women, particularly younger...

women, just DON'T CARE about the gay-straight thing to the degree that men do. They just don't.

And people under 40 - as most enlisted personnel are - really don't care much about gay-straight issues.

Military medicine has a large percentage of gay personnel. Who cares? If they don't, why should we?