Homosexuals Should Be Allowed to Serve Openly in the Military

This condemnation eventually led to the introduction of the separation of homosexuals from military service as seen with the neutral blue discharges which were often given to homosexual servicemen starting in 1916 . This neutral discharge was then labeled “general” and “undesirable”, resulting in a less honorable discharge. Discharges concerning men who were found to be guilty in engaging in homosexual acts were severely different than those who were neutrally discharged. If this were the case then you were then dishonorably discharged (“Don't Ask, Don't Tell” - Wikipedia). The current policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Harass, Don't Pursue1, derived from the original 1993 Department of Defense Directive 1332.14 coined Don't Ask, Don't Tell, ensures that any American citizen can participate in the Armed Forces. This policy is a step-up from the usual immediate discharge, however, this is only if the service member does not identify

The military leadership believed gay and lesbian service members were not fit for military service, were a security risk, threatened cohesion in the unit, and they violated the privacy of members of their units who were not gay. This outlook has however been refuted by policy makers, who according to Huffman et al., (2012) argued that sexual orientation was not a sufficient ground to reduce the performance of an individual during combat. General Powell alluded to this when putting a case for the group to a senate committee. According to Huffman et al., (2012) the rationale banning gays from military service also went against the just war theory since according to General Colin Powell the gays and lesbians were proud, brave and loyal citizens who deserved a chance to serve the nation. The ban on the gays also went against constitution on freedom of discrimination of all American citizens through race, color or creed. During my time in the service, I only had to chapter one Soldier out of the service due to the DADT, we didn’t know he was gay, until one night of drinking in the barracks, he made a pass at another Soldier and that Soldier reported him to his chain of

Many homosexuals that served in the Military prior to 2015 had to hide who they were and their loved ones throughout their career. They were forbidden to get married and receive the same benefits as their heterosexual

The ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy is a major policy of the armed forces of the United States, and allows a number of people to serve their country. This policy restricts the United States armed forces from discovering gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. The ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy has, in a way, limited homosexuals from completely fulfilling their military duties by forcing them to serve in the military silent about their personal lives. The policy is a violation of equal rights, forces homosexuals to violate the military code of honor, and causes disputes among fellow soldiers and should be repealed.

The Don’t Ask Don’t tell act which prevented openly gay and lesbians from serving in the United States Armed forces was placed into law on December 21st, 1993. It states that the military cannot discriminate against any gay, lesbian or bisexual person as long as they are discreet about their sexuality. They believed that any persons showing or acting in homosexual behavior would go against strict military moral codes and policy. However on September 20th, 2011 the Don’t ask Don’t Tell was repealed because the government felt it was discriminatory against homosexuals. I agree that openly gay and lesbians should able to serve in the military because nobody should have to hide who they are in order to serve and

Continuously deprived of acceptance, Americans from the LGBTQ community have fought and died in violent battles for this country throughout the entire history of the United States. Long before the terms gay and lesbian were even synonymous with sexual minorities, the designers of this country’s puritanical roots flaunted contempt for non-traditional individuals in the military through practice of sodomy laws. Emblematic of homosexuality today, sodomy was defined as basically any non-procreative sexual act with either a man or a woman. At best, suspected individuals were barred from enlisting, and at worst, these patriotic men were persecuted harshly with financial penalization or worse yet, mental/physical abuse dished out from their fellow

After completing the readings on gays and lesbians in the military one dynamic that I have not previously considered was the reason why some gay and lesbian military members join the military. In the article The Camouflage Closet: LGBT Veteran Educational Resource the writer discussed that some gay and lesbians join the military in order to disguise their sexual orientation. The article continues to describe how some gay men join the military to prove their masculinity, in order to hide their sexual orientation and some women join in order to deflect suspicions they may be gay or transgender. This is also known as “flight into masculinity”, which is where women find refuge in a characteristically masculine institution (Brown, 1998).This dynamic is not something that I every previously considered, but after reading the articles I can understand why this may be a way to mask sexual orientation.

Gay people have not always been barred from military service, and in fact, have served in the nation's wars throughout its history. The military's official stance toward gays and lesbians has evolved over time, often in tandem with social change. In the 1920's and 1930's, homosexuality was treated as a criminal offense, punishable by imprisonment. That attitude began to change in the early 1940's,

soldiers who are gay or bisexual serve in silence about their sexual preference is unequal because

While conducting research for my paper, I discovered that Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals (GLB) have been serving in the military before the United States was an independent country. In (2015) Pelts, Rolbiecki, and Albright reported that, Baron von Steuben was one of the first gay men in American History. He established the first military drill book and continues to be referenced in the present day in the U.S. Army Soldier’s Blue Book: this book discusses the standards of military conduct and the basis that a soldier needs to know to be successful when he or she goes into battle. General George Washington was motivated to ensure that Baron von Steuben

President Obama, during his run for President, promised that if he was elected the military policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” would be repealed and that homosexuals would be allowed to serve openly in our US military. As we know, Obama was elected and he followed through with his promise as earlier this year the “don’t ask, don’t tell” was repealed. The purpose of this essay is to answer the question, why is this a big deal? How will it work? How will it be implemented in the military? Over the next few pages I hope to provide you insight into this controversial issue by providing you the background surround the laws covering homosexuals serving in the military, the argument from both sides of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal, and finally how the implementation will occur in the military and what will be the problems when they finally put the new rules into effect.

Prior to 1973, homosexuality was listed as a mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and listed as a disqualifying mental illness in relation to military service. Upon removal from the DSM, homosexuality continued to be considered incompatible with military services. It was listed as a mental disorder in 1996 Defense Department directive until it was removed in 2004 (DOD Directive 1332.28). Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals have served in the military covertly for many decades, despite the history of exclusionary policies. LGB military persons have been harassed and discriminated against throughout these decades. Over 19,000 service members (active duty enlisted or officer members of

In the second half of 20th century, the democratic part of the world has been opening up to the acceptance of homosexual minority in every sphere of life. Specifically in military, couple of liberal countries like Israel, Australia or Netherlands lift the gay ban on military soldiers. On the other hand, the US enforced the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy (CNN, 2010).

When Obama signed the, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010”, it got rid of the original “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Act” that was signed by President Clinton in 1993. The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Act”, was not working out as planned. Instead of helping the gay community, it made things a lot worse. In an article written by Lincoln Caplan, he states, “Investigators routinely ask soldiers to name other marines rumored to be gay and threaten them if they don't confess to homosexual acts.” (Caplan n. pag). Sgt. Robert S. Nadel, a marine in the military, was once court-martialled for allegedly doing homosexual acts. For Nadel and many other soldiers like him, the real policy was more like

Militaries all over the world have historically excluded gay men, and to understand why we must first put it into historical context. The issue of gay men serving in militaries have been about for many decades, but the first cases of mass attention began in the 1980s. At his time LGBTQ rights movements erupted into the global scene, and many communities used sex as their expression of freedom. During this era HIV/AIDS was introduced into the LGBTQ community, and it led to the deaths of many people. HIV/AIDS was often mistaken as a “gay” disease, as it ran rampant through the community. While the community saw sex as one of their few rights or freedoms to have without intervention there were many sexually active gay men. Without the worry of pregnancy it was rare that protection was used, and thus HIV/AIDS spread quickly through the LGBTQ community. At this point in time the disease