thessalian (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thessalian) wrote2010-10-22 07:27 pm
thessalian) wrote2010-10-22 07:27 pm
Don't Ask, Don't Shoot
So the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell has been held up in appeals court. I'm not sure that DADT was the best way of dealing with it, but I'm not sure whether to be proud or ashamed of how long it took me to figure out why the hell such a stupid rule may have been thrown out in the first place. I guess part of me just swallowed whole the idea that it was all down to bigotry, about how people believed that no gay man would be able to function as well as a heterosexual man on the battlefield. I wasn't sure why, but I figured it was the same reason that they didn't want women on the front lines once upon a time. But there are women in the military, and yet there's DADT. This tells me that it's not about closeting the fact that there are gay people in the military. What this tells me is that it's as much for the protection of the gay recruit as it is for the protection of the sensibilities of bigots.
Look, there's a lot of ragging that already goes on in boot camps and military academies. There have been cases of people bullied to suicide or beaten to death or vanishing under mysterious circumstances. I know that there are times when you go into combat with your unit or what have you, and you have to be able to trust the rest of your unit with your life, because that's what you stand to lose. But how do you trust anyone who hates you because of what gender you prefer to pursue sexually? How can you be sure that the bigot in question won't put a bullet in you and call it, at worst, a 'friendly fire accident'?
If DADT was abolished tomorrow, I think that there would be serious issues for those who chose to out themselves. I think there'd be paranoia from hitherto unidentified bigots. I think there'd be a serious shake-up. Yes, it needs to be dealt with, because this kind of exclusionary behaviour is not strictly speaking on, but there still have to be some checks in place to ensure that ... y'know, some overzealous homophobe with a high-powered assault rifle isn't going to get twitchy.
That said, I think Peter Burke said it best: "We don't ask; we don't care". But we're dealing with a whole new ballgame and while I'm not suggesting being sensitive to the beliefs of bigots, I am suggesting that a delicate hand needs to be taken with the DADT repeal so that you don't get paranoia, unnecessary stress and a boatload of death when it goes the way of the dodo bird.
Look, there's a lot of ragging that already goes on in boot camps and military academies. There have been cases of people bullied to suicide or beaten to death or vanishing under mysterious circumstances. I know that there are times when you go into combat with your unit or what have you, and you have to be able to trust the rest of your unit with your life, because that's what you stand to lose. But how do you trust anyone who hates you because of what gender you prefer to pursue sexually? How can you be sure that the bigot in question won't put a bullet in you and call it, at worst, a 'friendly fire accident'?
If DADT was abolished tomorrow, I think that there would be serious issues for those who chose to out themselves. I think there'd be paranoia from hitherto unidentified bigots. I think there'd be a serious shake-up. Yes, it needs to be dealt with, because this kind of exclusionary behaviour is not strictly speaking on, but there still have to be some checks in place to ensure that ... y'know, some overzealous homophobe with a high-powered assault rifle isn't going to get twitchy.
That said, I think Peter Burke said it best: "We don't ask; we don't care". But we're dealing with a whole new ballgame and while I'm not suggesting being sensitive to the beliefs of bigots, I am suggesting that a delicate hand needs to be taken with the DADT repeal so that you don't get paranoia, unnecessary stress and a boatload of death when it goes the way of the dodo bird.