Don't Ask, Don't Tell!

A few weeks ago I watched the movie Soldier's Girl. It was such an emotional movie that left me both heartbroken and mad in the end. The movie is about a young military man who falls in love with a transgender woman. When people in the military find out it leads to an investigation and ultimately his death. It was such a powerful movie. A few days after watching this I was watching the L-word and it was about the military's "don't ask, don't tell policy". In the L-word Tasha(Alice's gf) is being investigated for being in violation of this policy and is actually held back from being deployed to Iraq. Most of us would be grateful for that but she wasn't. She loved being in the military and fighting for her country even though it meant staying in the "closet" in her personal life. I was reminded of this again today when I read an article in the paper about the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Here's what the policy says:

"Don't ask, don't tell" is the common term for the U.S. military policy which implements Pub.L. 103-160 (10 U.S.C. § 654). Unless one of the numerous exceptions from 10 U.S.C. § 654(b) applies, the policy prohibits anyone who "demonstrate(s) a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts" from serving in the armed forces of the United States, because it "would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability." The act prohibits any homosexual or bisexual person from disclosing his or her sexual orientation, or from speaking about any homosexual relationships, including marriages or other familial attributes, while serving in the United States armed forces.

So my question is what does being gay or bisexual have anything to do with serving your country? because it "would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability." I think there were some very stupid, homophobic people who wrote this shit. What the hell is the military afraid off? That some gay man is going to hit on some straight dude or that somehow a whole platoons morale is going to be destroyed because a lesbian is amongst them. Is this not America...The land of the free and the home of the brave. These young men and women are putting their lives on the line for their country. The last thing anyone should be worried about is who they prefer to sleep with. So, if your gay and in the military you can't talk about your personal life or you get kicked out but if your straight and in the military you can talk about your family, relationships etc. This kind of shit outrages me! I would like to hear what you all have to say about it. I will definitely be writing more on this later.