Can you be drafted to the army if you are gay? - Answers

Contents:

• I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• US ARY LIFTS BAN ON OPENLY GAY TROOPS
• ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS
• CAN YOU SERVE THE ARY IF YOU ARE GAY?
• CAN YOU BE DRAFTED TO THE ARMY IF YOU ARE GAY?
• PROVG YOU'RE GAY TO THE TURKISH ARMY
• WHICH ARY BRANCH HAS THE MOST GAY?

I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.

In rponse, and apparently to monstrate his petency his assigned posn, the nonmissned officer had taken upon himself to approach the person he nsired cled toward mtg a siar offense the future: me, the only openly gay soldier my un.

Together we approached our un’s learship, where she sisted that the ments had stemmed om the reprentative’s own homophobic feelgs and remend that he be reprimand and removed om his posn as the un’s sexual harassment watchdog. But by then was hard to ignore the anxiety I felt durg required social activi — “mandatory fun, ” as ’s lled the ary — or the tensn om my fellow moment I cid to bee a soldier and the moment I chose to live openly as a gay man occurred so closely time that ’s hard to remember which me first.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

Every memory evok an emotn: rage that I had to serve wh a nstant sense of fear of my fellow soldiers; paralyzg sadns for those who endured ab worse than I n know; and, the worst, guilt over the service members — gay or straight or transgenr — who died while servg the ary while my body is still whole. Half a after the repeal of don’t ask, don’t tell, most lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr service members still felt reluctant to be open about their sexualy wh their lleagu and cha of mand, acrdg to a study released late study, published by the journal Sexualy Rearch and Social Policy, found that 59 percent of rponnts did not feel fortable beg out at work, eher bee of reer repercsns or bee of the burn of beg a token rponsible for tg their peers.

”Dpe the orrs om above, many veterans publicly opposed the 2011 repeal of the ban on gay, lbian and bisexual service for troops who had grown up that environment, the policy’s mise did not flip a swch terms of fort level ― theirs or their lleagu.

US ARY LIFTS BAN ON OPENLY GAY TROOPS

“The stctor was reported to e the pejorative term ‘fags’ durg class, disclose other people’s sexual mory inty to his stunts whout their permissn, and munite that he believed sexual mori were more promiscuo than heterosexuals, ” acrdg the the study, based on a rponse om a gay soldier. I am about to be put on a board for major and I do not want to not even have that opportuny to put myself where they n easily be like, ‘Get rid of this guy; if we have to cut 55 percent of the officers up for , he’s one of the easy on we n jt fd a reason to jt ver [ourselv], ' " said one rponnt, a gay Mare. “I had a few iends there [ trag] that I got to know pretty well, but I knew a uple of them had some pretty strong relig backgrounds and I did not really feel like ttg the waters at that pot, ” one rponnt, a gay soldier, said.

ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

WASHINGTON -- Soldiers reprentg the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer muny virtually celebrated Pri Month Thursday as part of a discsn that marked another step the Army’s growg regnn toward the LGBTQ muny.

"I remember beg the Castro, " says John Forrett (army rerve, 1987–99), "and watchg the TV at a bar wh some iends, watchg Al Gore and Bill Clton swearg that if they beme the tag team for Ameri they were gog to get rid of the harassment of gays and lbians servg the ary. Of a number of latg events—Rocha was also force-fed dog food and locked to a sh-filled dog kennel—the most abive and explicly homophobic was when he was orred by his manr to act a dog-trag scenar, repeated over and over so that every dog the un uld be n through .

CAN YOU SERVE THE ARY IF YOU ARE GAY?

Life Seventy Years Ago as a Gay Serviceman: World War IIIt was only really around the Send World War that ary discrimatn beme dified and anized, and that the foc moved om simply sanctns agast homosexual acts to an attempt to intify and weed out homosexual tennci—though, as would be seen aga and aga, when fightg bodi were need badly enough, such ncerns would often evaporate.

Manzella operated fully wh the vtigatn; when he was asked for evince that he wasn’t jt claimg to be gay orr to trigger a discharge, he even supplied photos, and footage of him and his boyiend passnately kissg on a road trip. "While he was ployed, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a mpaigng group who had been givg him guidance, told him that 60 Mut wanted to do a piece about an openly gay man servg a bat zone, persuadg him that would give a voice to the "65, 000 men and women the ary" who weren’t able to live as openly as he was.

I was nfed until beme clear that, partly by chance and partly by a cha of personal remendatns over the years, this trailer park had bee some kd of gay-veteran hot spot: There are eight or ten others livg here, and more nearby. ’ The CO looked at my iend and said, ’If somebody wants to get off my ship for beg gay, they have to e to me wh two Polaroids, both of them they have to be clearly suckg ck, and I want to be able to see their face.

CAN YOU BE DRAFTED TO THE ARMY IF YOU ARE GAY?

’" The way he sometim jtified to himself what he did was that was a rponse to the ary’s homophobia, albe an extreme one: "I would feel very angry at the policy, and beme ’Well, fuck you, Mare Corps—I’m gog to do this and be as gay as I want to be for the world to see.

PROVG YOU'RE GAY TO THE TURKISH ARMY

Some likely post-repeal plitns: ristant pockets of homophobia the ary; the ntued right to voice certa homophobic sentiments unr, for stance, the eedom of relig exprsn; possible aternizatn charg if gay servicemen of different ranks ntue to associate wh each other as they often did the silent years; growg disquiet at the absence of partner rights equivalent to those for servicemen’s wiv.

WHICH ARY BRANCH HAS THE MOST GAY?

Don't Ask, Don't Tell – the US ary's 18-year ban on openly gay and lbian service personnel – has officially been repealed, herg a new era for the untry's armed a statement Print Barack Obama weled the end of a policy that he said had forced gay and lbian members to "lie about who they are" repeal, which took effect om midnight on Tuday, was celebrated as "momento news" by gay lobby groups across the US, who have long fought agast the policy, and among the ary's timated 65, 000 servg gay and lbian servicemen and said he was nfint that liftg the ban would enhance natnal secury.

"Last December, the print signed legislatn to repeal the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy (DADT), which had been passed by ngrs and signed to law 1993 unr then-Print Bill paid tribute to gay and lbian troops who had been discharged as a rult of the policy, and to those who had lost their liv to serve their than 14, 500 US service personnel have been thrown out of ary service sce the DADT policy took effect, acrdg to the non-prof watchdog and lobby group, the Servicemembers Legal DefenseDefence a memo, the Pentagon said that the policy would not harm ary reads, un hn or recg and retag members. "All service members are to treat one another wh digny and rpect, regardls of sexual orientatn, " he said, warng that "harassment or abe based on sexual orientatn" would not be tolerated the Pentagon said recers are now acceptg applitns om openly gay a statement, the US army said: "From this day forward, gay and lbian soldiers may serve our army wh the digny and rpect they serve.