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Sexual orientation and the military
Homosexuality in the us military
Homosexuality in the military
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Do you think that a person in a same sex relationship can defend our country? Does the gender they like determine if they are capable of being a strong and brave leader? If gay men and women served openly in the United States military, they would not weaken the effectiveness of the armed forces. Troops should be judged on ability, not sexual orientation. There was no valid reason for having the ban as long as they had it. What goes on behind closed doors is not the military's business. President Barack Obama said in a statement to the Stars and Stripes military newspaper, "The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve, not sexual orientation." You can be a very good officer, a creative …show more content…
They often launched what were called “witch hunts” to find gay troops and boot them out of the service. This was not just an issue of whether or not they should be allowed in the military anymore, but an act of discrimination.
For 17 years, the law kept qualified gay men and women from serving in the armed forces and sent a message that discrimination was acceptable. Prior to 1993, lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members could only be in the military if they remained deep in "the closet" and hid their sexual orientation from everyone. Not only was this a heated topic, but a horrible struggle for those who were forced to stay hidden.
In 2010 General James Amos worried that openly gay men and women would get Marines killed. He said that they would be a “distraction”. The mission for full equality in the military is still incomplete. They were treated like they were sick and had a disease. Though the ban was dropped, there is still a problem of discrimination
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Most of them were about how homosexuals are “wusses”, they would paint flowers everywhere, they were a nasty distraction, and that they would try to seduce everyone around them that is of the opposite sex. I couldn’t find a valid reason for why they shouldn’t be allowed in. All of the comments were opinions, there were no facts.
According to “nbcnews.com, written by unknown”, Warren Arbury of Savannah, Ga., was discharged because of his sexual orientation. Warren said after he was discharged that he would join again if they were to let him. "In an instant, I would go back at the lowest ranking, I would go back as a private," he said. "That's what I was born to do."
The gender you like does not decide who you are and what you are capable of doing. The discrimination that was, and still is, happening is not acceptable. The issue was not about a military debate, but an act of discrimination. The U.S. citizens wants to support our troops, but only when they don’t have the extra
From the mothers and fathers of the daughters and sons in the military to the friends that are left back home when someone enlists and prepares on their journey, this film provides a starting point to influence conversation’s about the sexual violence and injustice prevalent across the DOD. The film speaks out to the audience’s emotions by delivering jaw-dropping statistics all while providing a strong ethical basis of trustworthy resources, interviews, and statistics. This documentary is a great example of how using pathos, ethos and logos to implore an audience to question how the DOD reacts to MST. By combining all these rhetoric appeals, Kirby is able to convince the audience that there is sexual misconduct in the military and there is no evidence to prove that they are doing anything about
Being female should not impact how a man would react during tough situations, it is their job to protect as many people in the group as they can. Other than the fact that men will feel more worried about protecting the women, they also said, “men will not be able to restrain themselves sexually if forced to fight and work in close proximity to women.” In the military women and men all have the same uniform, which shows minimal skin, and women obligated to have their hair up in a bun, with no makeup on. The excuses they use to keep women out of the military only seem to become more irrational as the years have gone
First is because the policy change was made due to the growth in our company and the need to increase production. By not making this change our company would begin to suffer due to lack of supply to meet the market demands forcing an unnecessary hardship on the company. Second is a result from the “reasonable person test”. “An employee who resigns after being subjected to unlawful discrimination is said to have been constructively discharged if a reasonable person would have found the discriminatory conditions to be intolerable.” (Finnegan, 2001, p. 562) Finally, the employee must provide definitive proof of their religious beliefs and conclude with irrefutable evidence proving the working conditions were intolerable and that the employer created the conditions, targeting the employee into
The first main point that I want to focus on is how daily life in the military would be affected if we knew we had gays or lesbians sleeping right next to us every night. Would we want to move out of our barracks and move to one where there wasn’t a gay or lesbian or would we just stick it out? In some cases you have times where you may have other soldiers in your barracks that you may not know if they are gay/lesbian at all unless they tell you. This affects many things like the “Buddy System” and also the life in the barracks. “Most junior enlisted (the ones who have to live i...
Frank, Nathaniel. Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America. New York: Thomas Dunne, 2009. Print.
Whitlock, Craig, and Greg Jaffe. "Pentagon supports ending 'don't ask, don't tell' law for gays in military." Washington Post 3 February 2010, Print.
Many women around the world have big responsibilities in the military, and although some people may disagree, I believe they can handle anything a man can handle when it comes to being on the battlefield. Some people think that women should not be able to fight in the military, where as other people think they should be able to fight in the military. Each supporter and non-supporter has their own reasons. Some of the reasons for the non-supporters are because of their gender. They think that because they are women, they cannot handle the challenges that being on the battlefield brings. Women are willing to fight, and they know what can happen, they know exactly what can happen. They are willing to fight for their country, and I believe they should be able to. The men that fight for our country are against women fighting in combat. They believe that women are not capable of doing what they do to defend and fight for our country. The men feel that they cannot trust women to help back them up at war simply because of the fact that they are women.
In September 2011, the United States lifted the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (DADT), which restricted gay, lesbian, and bisexuals from openly serving in the military. This was the first time in American history in which people of every sexual orientation could serve openly (“11 Facts About,” n.d.). This was a momentous occasion for some and not so much for others. For those military members that had served in secret and those members that were firmly against gays and lesbians, this repeal had different meaning. Both groups contained members that have served in the military for years and were products of the Former President Bill Clinton’s 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. For many soldiers of this era, communication issues arose due to a pre-existing mentality, learned rules and regulations in services reinforced for two decades and the general cultural within combat related fields.
The persecution of homosexuals during this age of McCarthy proved exactly how vulnerable they were to attack and discrimination. Out of those persecutions came some of the first organized “gay rights” groups, known as Homophile organizations, the first two being the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilibis (who focused their efforts on Lesbian rights). Founded in 1950 by Harry Hay, the...
Sexual assault in the military has become one of the most controversial of all issues that have been discussed over the years. The topic has received extensive media coverage and has contributed to multiple media scandals. According to a Newsweek report done in 2011, women are more likely to be assaulted by fellow soldiers than killed in combat. The Department of Defense estimates approximately 19,000 sexual assaults occur per year amongst military personnel. That number is stifling considering that in the last year only 1,108 troops filed for investigation, and of those only 575 cases were processed. Out of the 575 processed cases only 96 went to Court Martial. Obviously from the numbers, sexual assault is a serious issue in the military. Much like in the civilian world there is bias when it comes to the guilt or innocence of the attacker, as well as the validity in the accounts of the accuser. I believe that the system in place may inadvertently contribute to the continuous rise in sexual assaults and that if this system isn’t fixed quickly, it will be detrimental to the organization as a whole. Sexual assault has seriously negative impacts on service members and their families. That impact carries over to their work, limiting mission readiness, and undermining national security.
During WWII, the initial acceptance of woman in the military was controversial because they were deciding whether just needed more people, whether they should be an official part of the services, and whether they could perform the jobs. Most people were concerned that women would obstruct the view of American culture because they would be considered “masculine”. By 1944, women proved to be effective in helping during the war. Some were even trained to shoot guns next to the men. In 1994 the DOD (Department of Defense) created a policy that prevented women from combat with their male colleagues. They also could not be assigned to units below the brigade level, whose number one objective is combat on ground. Over the years women have showed that they are physically, mentally, and emotionally able to keep up with men in the military.
The US Military has a long history and jaded history of issues with sexual assault. The number of women sexually assaulted in the US Military is 5% higher than that of women in the ficivilian population; there are an estimated 20,000 sexual assaults on women service members each year. This is not, however, a strictly female problem; it is estimated that nearly half of...
The history of the gay rights movement goes as far back as the late 19th century. More accurately, the quest by gays to search out others like themselves and foster a feeling of identity has been around since then. It is an innovative movement that seeks to change existing norms and gain acceptance within our culture. By 1915, one gay person said that the gay world was a "community, distinctly organized" (Milestones 1991), but kept mostly out of view because of social hostility. According to the Milestones article, after World War II, around 1940, many cities saw their first gay bars open as many homosexuals began to start a networking system. However, their newfound visibility only backfired on them, as in the 1950's president Eisenhower banned gays from holding federal jobs and many state institutions did the same. The lead taken by the federal government encouraged local police forces to harass gay citizens. "Vice officers regularly raided gay bars, sometimes arresting dozens of men and women on a single night" (Milestones). In spite of the adversity, out of the 1950s also came the first organized groups of gays, including leaders. The movement was small at first, but grew exponentially in short periods of time. Spurred on by the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the "homophile" (Milestones) movement took on more visibility, picketing government agencies and discriminatory policies. By 1969, around 50 gay organizations existed in the United States. The most crucial moment in blowing the gay rights movement wide open was on the evening of July 27, 1969, when a group of police raided a gay bar in New York City. This act prompted three days of rioting in the area called the Stonewall Rio...
In the 1940s, homophobia was extremely prevalent in the United States. People who were openly gay were often stigmatized. “Homosexuality was discussed as ‘an aspect of three personality disorders: psychopaths who were sexual perverts, paranoid personalities who suffered from homosexual panic, and schizoid personalities’ who displayed gay symptoms” (Kaiser 29). Many regulations and practices discriminated against gays. The military found homosexuality to be a direct threat to strength and safety of the U.S. government and the American people, in general. In 1941 the Army and the Selective Service banned homosexuals from participation in the war (Kaiser 29). All major religions considered it sinful and throughout the country, more and more people found it to be immoral. Life was hard for homosexuals in the early and mid-twentieth century. They were forced to hide their sexuality in order to escape derision or imprisonment.
“After more than a half-decade operating in a favorable recruiting environment that allowed the U.S. military to be increasingly selective and to meet most recruitment goals, the new environment is “likely to become significantly less fertile in the near future,” according to a new summary report released by CNA” (Wagner). In the near future some have predicted that we are slowly needing more recruiment, and not reached the maximum of what we need for our military. If we took the right from LGBT individuals to not be able to serve in the military that would be harming us more than anything by limiting our recruitment