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.
Prior to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy the United States and its citizens were not very tolerant to openly gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals. Prior to World War II gays were not specifically targeted for exclusion from the military, although sodomy was considered a criminal offense as early as the Revolutionary War. However by the beginning of World War II, the military had shifted focus from excluding acts that were considered homosexual to focusing on members that were considered homosexual. In 1942, the military issued its first regulation that contained a paragraph defining the difference between a homosexual and a normal person. In fact, this regulation also described procedures for rejecting gay draftees. (Martinez, Hebl, & Law, 2012). The military based these procedures on medical rationale and psychiatric screening to...
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...veals. NBC News. Retrieved March 16, 2014, from http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/10/13782623-no-negative-impacts-from-repeal-of-dont-ask-dont-tell-study-reveals?lite
Martinez, L. R., Hebl, M. R., & Law, C. L. (2012). How Sexuality Information Impacts Attitudes and Behaviors Toward Gay Service Members. Military Psychology (Taylor & Francis Ltd), 24(5), 461-472. doi:10.1080/08995605.2012.716266
Moradi, B. (2009). Sexual orientation disclosure, concealment, harassment, and military cohesion: perceptions of LGBT military veterans... lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. Military Psychology (Taylor & Francis Ltd), 21(4), 513-533.
Rich, C., Schutten, J., & Rogers, R. A. (2012). “Don't Drop the Soap”: Organizing Sexualities in the Repeal of the US Military's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” Policy. Communication Monographs, 79(3), 269-291. doi:10.1080/03637751.2012.697633
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
From the end of the draft in 1973 to the military data from 2003, the number of women in service rose from 2 percent to 12 percent. A sample of military women studied in 1991 showed 69 percent to have experienced sexual harassmen...
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?
Frank, Nathaniel. Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America. New York: Thomas Dunne, 2009. Print.
A major factor in the recruitment of people from the homosexual community is the change in perception over time. Historically, police personnel have viewed these people as “deviants”. However, this attitude slowly changed in the 1980’s to the point that homosexuals were permitted within the police services, provided that they didn’t openly disclose their sexual orientation. Today, most police managers acknowle...
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
In the past decades, the struggle for gay rights in the Unites States has taken many forms. Previously, homosexuality was viewed as immoral. Many people also viewed it as pathologic because the American Psychiatric Association classified it as a psychiatric disorder. As a result, many people remained in ‘the closet’ because they were afraid of losing their jobs or being discriminated against in the society. According to David Allyn, though most gays could pass in the heterosexual world, they tended to live in fear and lies because they could not look towards their families for support. At the same time, openly gay establishments were often shut down to keep openly gay people under close scrutiny (Allyn 146). But since the 1960s, people have dedicated themselves in fighting for
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).
The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy means that service men and women are not questioned about their sexual orientation, and they are not to talk about their sexual orientation. In 1993 U. S. Congress passed a federal law forbidding the military service of openly gay men and women serving in the military. Even though Congrees created the law, it was up to the military leadership to carry it out. Opposing viewpoints states:
...protest movements throughout America and the world.” Among the gay community Stonewall has become the word for freedom, for fighting, for equality. It became a turning point in Gay history, so much so that most books on the subject refer to “pre-Stonewall” and “post-Stonewall” as the lines of demarcation. Of course the journey is still long and fight has not been won. At the turn of the century there were still 20 states that made homosexual sex illegal , any only a few states would recognize the love and companionship of gays through marriage or civil unions. The military policy of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is still active and prejudices continue to exist. But, as exemplified by any other civil rights movement, it is through the constant grind of activists and lay-people constantly protesting and educating, that change occurs, even if only one person at a time.
The purpose of this essay is to discuss the issue of rape and sexual assault in the military. The number of attacks for rape and sexual assault in the military are at an all-time high. Women have recently been allowed to fight on the front line. While this may be a huge achievement for women-kind, for this woman, it is a very scary thought. I am a junior at Texas Academy of Biomedical Sciences; a school geared towards students wishing to enter the medical field. I may be forced to join the military one day if a war breaks out and women are needed to protect the country. I would be happy to serve my country if I did not have to be scared of my fellow soldiers. Rape and sexual assault are major issues in the military and have been for many years without much effort to decrease the attacks. I am suggesting that unless the rape and sexual assault issue is fixed, the amount of people joining the military, specifically the women, will decrease greatly.
women in the military and found that 51.8 % of men and 74.6% of women
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.
Johnson, L., & Federman, E. J. (2014). Training, experience, and attitudes of VA psychologists regarding LGBT issues: Relation to practice and competence.. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 1(1), 10-18. Retrieved April 21, 2014, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000019
When one hears the words “LGBT” and “Homosexuality” it often conjures up a mental picture of people fighting for their rights, which were unjustly taken away or even the social emergence of gay culture in the world in the1980s and the discovery of AIDS. However, many people do not know that the history of LGBT people stretches as far back in humanity’s history, and continues in this day and age. Nevertheless, the LGBT community today faces much discrimination and adversity. Many think the problem lies within society itself, and often enough that may be the case. Society holds preconceptions and prejudice of the LGBT community, though not always due to actual hatred of the LGBT community, but rather through lack of knowledge and poor media portrayal.