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With the times changing in our country, our opinion of what is right and what I think as wrong. I will go over a few of different subjects that are the focus of a lot what we have seen in the news coverage and debate topics over these past few years. With the change in the laws of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender to transgender adults in the armed forces, the laws and rights have changed significantly over the years and we will discuss in this paper. Some of the other things that happen in the LGBT community that I will discuss are; same sex marriage and allowing transgender operations take place while serving in the military.
Back in 2004, when I joined the military, it is safe to say it was a pretty rough time to be lesbian, gay, bisexual,
In the essay “Why gays shouldn’t serve” by David Horowitz he states that “Don’t ask, Don’t Tell policy is a way of containing the destructive force of sex on a combat capability called Unit Cohesion. (354)” This controversial topic has surfaced more and more recently because Barack Obama wanted to let all people serve in the military, regardless of their sexual orientation. “More than 1,000 retired flag and general officers have joined us in signing an open letter to President Obama and Congress, repeal of this law would prompt many dedicated people to leave the military (James J. Lindsay).” There are multiple points you could focus on when trying to explain your point on why gays or lesbians should not serve in the military. The first point we will be focusing on is: how would military life change if straight men or women knew that there were gays or lesbians sleeping next to them? The second point is: would straight men and women communicate with the gays or lesbians the same way as they would toward other straight men or women? The third and final point is: how would other countries view our military if they knew we had gays or lesbians in the military?
McGowan, Jeffrey. Major Conflict: One Gay Man’s Life in the Don’t-ask-don’t-tell Military. New York: Broadway, 2005. Print.
In 1950, President Harry S. Truman implemented discharge policies for homosexual service members in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. This would allow military leaders to discharge any service member who was thought to be homosexual. In 1992, during President Bill Clinton’s campaign, he promises to lift that ban. Not being able to do just that, President Clinton issued a directive referred to as ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’. This stated that no service member should be asked about their sexual orientation. Mackubin Thomas Owens wrote the article “Gay Men and Women in the Military Disrupt Unit Cohesion” in 2009 right after President Clinton was again calling for the end of forcing homosexuals to live in secret. In his article he states that homosexuals living openly in the military will take away from military effectiveness and put the other service member’s lives in danger. Throughout most of the article he uses other resources, polls and opinions on the matter verses clearly stating his own. Most of the resources he uses are military connected or
Homosexuality in the military had been frowned upon back dating since the late 1770’s. Due to fear of reprimand, men and women were able to join the military but did not discuss their sexuality. It was believed that homosexuality was criminalized in U. S. military law. Prior to World War II, there was no written policy barring homosexuals from serving, although sodomy was considered a crime by military law ever since Revolutionary War times (Powers, 2012).
Today’s military is a unique force in my opinion. What makes the US Military so unique is that we have an all volunteer force. With that volunteer force there are rules and regulations that need to be followed because serving our country is a privilege. The 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy is claiming that even though it may be considered an infringement on human rights and freedom of expression, it protects the rights of the rest of the military and opens a loophole for gay men and women to serve in the armed forces. Other countries have successfully integrated gay men and women into their militaries and compared the treatment of other "minority" groups in the military. Is the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy really effective or even necessary for our militaries?
Imagine being in the heat of war, a place where trust is needed most. Imagine, however, that in the heat of war you cannot trust your fellow soldier because of personal tensions within the unit. It was this problem that the policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was designed to avoid, the tension caused between soldiers when homosexuals are serving openly. Without this policy, homosexuals serving openly could create tension that interferes with the military’s effectiveness. While it may not be obvious at first, the policy of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” actually supports the both values of the military and the rights of homosexuals. As a result, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” is needed to protect homosexual service members and is crucial in securing military effectiveness.
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.
Social causes such as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and same-sex marriage laws contribute to homosexuals choosing to hide their real self. In the military, many homosexual soldiers are being punished for not liking the opposite sex. In Burks article, “Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Victimization in the Military” he describes the struggles service members face. Burk explains that if a homosexual does not hide his sexual orientation than he or she will be discharged from the military. Between 1980 and 2009 over 32,000 service members were discharged due to their sexual-orientation. Also, sexual assault and sexual harassment is very common among service members...
basic civil rights protections for GLBT people.” (Currah, Minter p.9) Many of the LGBT population feel like their personal freedoms and liberties have been violated as lawmakers in some states and countries infringe on their personal rights. Passings of legislature that marginalizes the LGBT population is not only unjust and inhumane but it causes sociological and societal implications that question that persons beliefs about themselves leading to the dangerous climate facing the group from within themselves and the population around
I want you to become aware of what we have done and take action to stop people to be happy, to respect their way of thinking, acting, and living. My purpose in writing this paper is to present my points of view on how society has changed as the years go by. Also how homosexuals have fought for many years and all the different struggles they have managed to get the rights they deserve and one day had which were then taken away because they became themselves and also because of the ignorance of some people.
The treatment of the LGBT community in American Society is a social injustice. What most people think is that they just want to be able to marry one another and be happy but that’s not it. They want to be treated like humans and not some weird creatures that no one has ever seen before. They want to be accepted for who them are and not what people want them to be and they deserve the right to be who they are just the same as any other human being. After all the discrimination they have endured they should be allowed to be who they are and be accepted as equals just like people of different skin color did in the times of segregation. We have a long way to go as a country but being the greatest country in the world in the eyes of many great America will make big steps to make things fair.
Why are there so many struggles in life? All this fuss about having an identity... I just don't know so stop bombing me with questions like 'Are you gay?' or even 'Are you asexual?' I'm not even sixteen. How the f*ck am I supposed to know who I am?
Society has shaped the thoughts and minds of many individuals and because of this personal beliefs towards LGBT people came into play. Society was constantly telling people that there was something wrong with them if they were LGBT and that they would go to hell for it because God did not approve of it and it was a sin. I would like to say that because society was judging people and denying them, that they were committing a sin. It is not their place to decide the fate of certain people, the only person that can make those decisions is God. God is the one that decides whether we are deemed worthy to go to Heaven or not. With that being said, I grew up in a family that is very religious on one side and the other side had their person beliefs
If you were to ask me what exactly sparked my passion for LGBT rights, I wouldn’t be able to give a straight answer (pun not intended). I did (and still do) not identify personally to any of the terms LGBT stands for, nor did any of my close family members or friends at the time identify as such. Now a few do, but that’s hardly the only reason I’m still passionate about it. Regardless of what spurred my interest, I think one of the reasons I became invested was that, being raised by a fairly liberal family, I never entertained the thought that being LGBT could ever be considered “wrong” in any way. It simply became a natural fact of life. So by the time I discovered that not everybody though it was natural, my opinion could no
As a child we are told that we can be anything we want. We are told that if we wanted to be a fireman, policeman or astronaut, we can become it. We are told that if we have the passion and desire for something, we will achieve it. But what if I wanted the freedom to express myself to the utmost? We are told we have the right to be anything we want, but ourselves. When I was a child I wanted to take guitar classes, but my mother put me in figure skating classes because it was the girly thing to do and I had no say because I was merely a child. When I realized I liked the same sex in middle school I had no voice because I was a child who was exploring her sexuality. Age eighteen and I still have no say because I’m still a child who is confused. I knew that my voice would be silenced and I was going against the norm of society. The church says gays are an abomination. The government says gays aren't allowed to marry. Every day on the news there another image of a gay student who committed suicide due to bullying. I wasn't allowed to be myself because I knew being gay was not looked upon lightly by others. I hid myself from my friends and most importantly my parents due to the fear of society constriction against me. I was strong enough not to end up on the news but the right to be myself was taken away.