The General and his Gay Soldiers

So the Pentagon's top General thinks it's still a good idea to kick gay soldiers out of the U.S. military...and force tens of thousands of other gay soldiers to fight for their country...while hiding who they are and who they love.

And not only that....he insults them as well.... by publicly declaring that homosexuality is immoral.

"As an individual, I would not want (acceptance of gay behavior) to be our policy, just like I would not want it to be our policy that if we were to find out that so-and-so was sleeping with somebody else's wife, that we would just look the other way, which we do not. We prosecute that kind of immoral behavior...."

As if homosexuality was just a behaviour..... instead of an orientation. As if they didn't need all the good soldiers they can get. So they don't have to recruit gang members, racists and other criminals.

As if the General wasn't acting just like the religious fanatics his soldiers are fighting against.

Dave at the Galloping Beaver has written a good post about the absurdity of it all.

But my reaction is more personal. I know some gay American soldiers, including one who is presently fighting in one of the most dangerous parts of Iraq. So I know that gay soldiers can be just as good and brave as any other soldiers. And sometimes even braver...because some of them try so hard to be better than the others...so they can earn the respect they crave...and be treated as equals by the buddies they fight and die with.

That kind of devotion to duty is not something I approve of....not in a crazy war like Iraq....but I understand where they are coming from.

I also know how lonely gay soldiers can feel when they must say goodbye to their lovers and partners at home...instead of at the airport.The straight soldiers get to hug and kiss their girl friends and wives. But the gay soldiers can't show their feelings, and must walk to the gate alone.







I also know how hard it is after returning from some hellish patrol not to be able to share your true feelings in an e-mail or a phone call home. Because your e-mails and phone calls are screened. So you can't even tell the person you love how much you love them. Even though you could be killed the next day.

You've got to love your country a lot and really love being a soldier .... to fight for an army that treats you like that.

Fortunately more and more gay soldiers and their supporters are challenging the ban. And joining forces to try to overturn it. You can read about that struggle here and here.

It's a noble cause....I wish I could be as restrained and dignified as they are. But I can't. It just makes me so angry. And I'm so sick of homophobes spewing their vomit all over us...in the name of crazy religion.

I just wish I could pack all of these chickenhawk bigots into the back of a humvee, and send them for a little spin though hell ...the kind my soldier friend in Iraq takes practically every day...



Except I would hope that the bigots riding in the humvee....and the religious fanatics who set off the IED...wouldn't be so lucky...

Hope that because of all the gay lives they've destroyed...they would, fittingly enough, be blown to smithereens. Or at the very least....drown in their own blood....

Hey gay soldier boy! Semper Fidelis....hero idiot...

Wouldn't that be a beautiful day?