Look Out! He's Got a Gun…and He's GAY!

Democrats are going to be scrambling during the lame duck session to get Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repealed before they leave their posts. I’ve got a good number of friends in the military, but none of them are gay (that I know of), so I really want their perspective on this who DADT bruhaha.

Here’s my view: If a gay dude wants to take bullet and go through the armpit of Hell so that Americans like me can eat a hamburger in peace, I say let him. I don’t want to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to PT (physical train), spend hours go over boring briefs, get hollered and screamed at by some insane drill sergeant, and then eventually get posted in some back water station – (lets pick one: North Korea!) – all in the name of defending my country. I’m just not that brave or selfless.

But there are some gay men and women that are.

So what if they want it known that they engage in homosexual sex? As I understand it, officers aren’t “supposed” to be fraternizing with one another anyways, so what’s the big deal? Perhaps the big deal is actually a really small one – and that is it makes people uncomfortable.

I can’t fault people for being uncomfortable around gays. They’re different. It’s human nature to shed some level of comfort around things/people that are dissimilar to what you see as the norm. I see the way Indians look at me when I roll up on Industrial Blvd in search of dhosa during Diwali. That look plainly says “What does this Black chick think she’s doing in my hood? Eating up MY dhosa?”. And I’ll be the first to admit, I get a little antsy when I walk into a restaurant and see a sea of nothing but White faces. It makes me uncomfortable, because I know I’m going to have order beef when I really want the chicken. I love chicken. Does my discomfort make me an idiot? I think it just makes me human. To a large extent, humans are like birds and find comfort in and flock with the familiar. So should straight people be called ‘bigots’ and ‘idiots’ because they are uncomfortable sharing barracks with another sub-culture? Nah, not in my view. They just need to find a way around that discomfort. If one of the solutions is separate barracks for homosexuals (for the short term), then let them serve openly and have their own quarters.

Being gay is nothing new. In fact, all men in Rome were gay at some point. Research has shown that during the time of Ceaser, sex with men and boys was for fun and sex with women was merely for procreation. When soldiers would come back from war, they would have to have their wives dress up as men/boys to get them comfortable with sleeping with a woman. I swear. Look it up.

I’m not about to jump on a soap box and ask President Obama to repeal DADT without looking at all the possible effects and consequences that might have on the psyche of certain members of our armed services…because just like integration between the races, it’s gonna happen eventually, and this topic will seem passe and antiquated with the passage of time.