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I think the real issue here is the fact that the majority of enlisted military men and women are straight and many of them are not comfortable with homosexuals in the military.

Case in point, my cousin was an army infantry guy, served two bouts in Iraq driving Hummers and getting shot at. Along with PTSD, a messed up leg, and a variety of emotional issues, he left the military being extremely homophobic. Why you may ask? because there were several times during his training and deployment where he was put into extremely horrible situations by gay men, not by choice (won’t go into detail). He's a strong guy but not strong enough to ward off 5 guys. Anyway, bad experience all around.

However, I believe the problem isn't necessarily gay people in the military, the problem is the way the military treats people in general and deals with these type of abuses. Shouldn’t we be training our soldiers to be upstanding citizens as well as protectors of our nation? Why does so much sexual harassment and rape occur both by straight men attacking women and gay men attacking men? That’s the real question we should be answering and coming up with a solution for.

 If gay people can be open about their sexual disposition, perhaps they can be held accountable for their actions and the military can start cracking down on sexual harassment, rapes, etc.  However, I'm not too hopeful the repeal of this policy will make a difference considering how women are currently sexually harassed and raped quite often in the military…

posted 3 years, 4 months ago
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