Gay West Point Graduates Come Out Organized
From the Detroit Free Press.
Meanwhile, the US military has lost 11,694 individuals to "Don't Ask Don't Tell." I think that's one more thing that's going to be changing under the new guy.
Thirty-eight graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., came out of the closet Monday with an offer to help their alma mater educate future Army leaders on the need to accept and honor the sacrifices of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender troops.
The group, Knights Out, wants to serve as a connection between gay troops and Army administrators, particularly at West Point, to provide an open forum for communication between gay West Point graduates and their fellow alumni and to serve in an advisory role for West Point leaders if the “don’t ask, don’t tell” laws are repealed by Congress. The group believes a repeal is both “imminent and inevitable.”
“We’re publicly announcing our sexuality, our orientation,” said 1st Lt. Dan Choi, a National Guardsman with the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry, based in Manhattan. “It’s just one part of who we are in saying that we are standing to be counted.”
In forming Knights Out, its 38 members are following the example of similar support and education groups formed by graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy and U.S. Air Force Academy, known respectively as USNA Out and Blue Alliance. Most if not all of these groups’ members also belong to the Service Academy Gay and Lesbian Alumni social network, a group that Knights Out claims includes some active-duty commanders serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. West Point grads declare gay pride
Meanwhile, the US military has lost 11,694 individuals to "Don't Ask Don't Tell." I think that's one more thing that's going to be changing under the new guy.
posted by JimK at 8:08 AM
7 Comments:
Yay for queer soldiers!
rrjr
Finally, someone will gentrify those dreary barracks!
And, for heaven's sake, let's have some condom demonstration classes in the mess hall and, then, quiche and camomille all around.
So are anonymous' jokes funny, or are they inappropriate stereotyping?
I know when a FFX principal made comments about fried chicken, she had to resign?
What do you think, Jim?
Robert, I thought the anon was confused - is the president going to repeal a ban on Martha Stewart in the military?
As for the condom classes - colleges and universities all over the country are providing this and other healthy sexuality information to their students, as they have had to contend with too many new students who have not gotten this information before coming to college. I student-taught in one of these classes at the University of Maryland. I hope the military colleges are also providing this information to their students.
What do I think? It's true that Anon's comments comprise stereotyping, are offensive, and display her ignorance. The dialog here though is, among other things, about how to make a social transition that moves gay people from the outside in, and one of the mechanisms that has kept them out is stereotyping. To me it is okay to get the ignorant view out in the open where it can be addressed directly. In the workplace, no, our society has moved beyond that, you get fired for talking like that. But a lot of people do cling to the old stereotypes, it's part of the problem we are dealing with generally, and to my mind Anon does us a service by reminding us that there are still people who think that way.
JimK
Good point Jim.
Anon indeed does us a service. He reminds us of the real reason those folks who claim religious stipulations really have for suppressing lgbt equality:
simple prejudice.
He puts the lie to all of his attempts to craft reasonable arguments. Westboro light.
rrjr
"Yay for queer soldiers!"
hip hip hooray, fellas
say, don't you guys stereotype conservatives and religious people all the time?
what's the difference?
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