An Army of 1 in 10

I know it’s been a long time since my last post, but being deployed to Iraq limited my time and opportunities to post to Unsilence.  I left Iraq last week and I’m getting settled back in.  I’ll be leaving on a wonderful trip to the southern hemisphere in a few weeks, so expect some more delays in my posting.

Today also happens to be bittersweet for me.  I am fairly conservative and am a registered Republican.  I disliked both candidates that were running for President and I would have been dissatisfied with the result no matter who won.  However, I did state in an earlier post some time ago that this election I would support the candidate who would best bring about the abolishment of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

That candidate has won.  While I worry about what his liberal policies will do to this country, I don’t think that they could possibly make things any worse than they are right now with the economic crisis.  I look forward to the day when I can serve openly without fear of losing my job.  Hopefully, that day is not far off.

To the President-Elect, I congratulate you on your victory and the fulfillment of Dr. King’s dream.  I pray that you will work to allow me to serve this great country of ours without fear of losing my job due to my being gay.

From Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton:

I disagree with General Pace completely.  I don’t think homosexuality is immoral.’

The current military policy of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell” isn’t working.  Let’s not be eliminating people because of who they are or who they love.

So DADT isn’t working, Mrs. Clinton?  Wow, that’s news to me.  I wonder who was responsible for DADT’s becoming law in the first place…

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff yesterday placed his personal beliefs ahead of human decency, equality, and national security. General Pace stated that he believes homosexuality to be immoral and that gay Soldiers should continue to be subject to being fired for a condition they did not choose. What I found interesting, is that he said that adultery was also immoral (it is) but made no mention of enacting a policy to separate adulterous service members.

“I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way,” Pace told the newspaper in a wide-ranging interview.

Pace, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a 1967 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, said he based his views on his upbringing.

He said he supports the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” in which gay men and women are allowed in the military as long as they keep their sexual orientation private. The policy, signed into law by President Clinton in 1994, prohibits commanders from asking about a person’s sexual orientation.

“I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts,” Pace said.

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As I’ve already stated in an earlier post, I will not be supporting candidates this election cycle who do not give their explicit and unwavering support for the repeal of 10 U.S.C. 654 (”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”). Now, while I was already planning on not supporting Sen. McCain due to his role in the unconstitutional McCain-Feingold Act, he’s lost any hope of having any support coming from my direction.

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Yesterday, Congressman Marty Meehan re-introduced the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, and it goes into this Congress with 110 co-sponsors. With a minimum of 218 votes for it to pass the House, we need only 108 more to sign onto this very important and historic piece of legislation.

If you want to see discrimination against queer Service Members end, then you need to contact your Representative and make it clear that you expect him/her to support this bill.

Today is the day that Congressman Martin Meehan re-introduced the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, and he’s promising to hold hearings on it as early as April. Last month, several high-ranking officials spoke out against Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and called for its repeal.

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There has been an explosion of discussion in the AKO Forums (make sure you’re logged in before following the link) in the “Bi?” thread.  A Future Soldier made this comment which set off a firestorm:

i personally wouldnt want any faggots in the military PERIOD.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 22, 2007

CONTACT: Rebecca Sawyer: (202) 328-3244, ext. 102 /   

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Nathan over at Homocon wrote a post concerning yesterday’s launch of Serving in Unsilence, but I couldn’t find any way of replying there, so I’ve decided to do so here. Since his post raises a valid point, I think that’s also the best way of doing so since I can clarify something in the press release this way.

Anonymous Soldier, the site’s founder, states that “Serving in Unsilence has one of the strongest privacy policies on the internet, and strongly urges its members who are currently in the military not to divulge any personal information on their blogs.”

Which then begs the question — if you don’t divulge any personal information on your blog, is it really a blog? And how do you write about your life in the military while skirting any information and/or series of events than can be used to identify you?

By “personal information,” I meant things such as one’s name, unit, or any specific identifying details (e.g. a tattoo, injury, scar, etc). I think that I’ve done a pretty good job of posting about my life in the military without making any specific mentions that could be used to identify me.

I may not have gone into great detail, but I don’t believe it to be necessary to do so to write about life in the military. It’s really not that different from posting about being deployed — maintaining one’s personal OPSEC (”PERSEC”) is no different from maintaining regular OPSEC. One just has to be cognizant of what is being posted to the internet and the possible consequences that may come with it.

Nathan maintains a great site, and I highly recommend it. Thanks for the mention, Nathan!

Nathan’s site: Homocon

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THE INTERNET — Feb. 15 2007 – An anonymous blogger known only as “Anonymous Soldier” today launched a new website, Serving in Unsilence. Serving in Unsilence™ is a free service aimed at the LGBT Service Member community in an effort to raise awareness of the many thousands of sexual minority Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines serving honorably and in silence in defense of their country.
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