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When the "don't ask, don't tell" policy emerged as a political compromise under Bill Clinton in 1993, it only ended up worsening the destructive gay ban that had been on the books since World War II. Drawing on more than a decade of research and hundreds of interviews, Nathaniel Frank exposes the military's policy toward guys and lesbians.… (meer)
Dr. Frank provides a compelling look at how the ban on gays in the military hurts the country's security and makes it more difficult for America to fight terrorists. He describes how many people in the military who were for the ban are now against it. The military has fired Arabic translators, counterintelligence specialists, and others who are desperately needed.
Dr. Frank examines and rejects the arguments of the supporters of the gay ban, including the idea that homosexuals serving openly will hurt morale and military readiness. He points out that many gays have served openly in the miitary with no problems. Also, many foreign countries including Canada, Great Britain, and Australia have lifted their gay bans and have had found that homosexuals were easily integrated into their units.
Dr. Frank writes about some of the tragedies that have occured because of homophobia in the military-one man was beaten to death with a baseball bat. Other gays and lesbians endured physical abuse and threats. Gays and lesbians, or those suspected of being gay and lesbian, can be investigated and discharged. ( )
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Make us choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half truth when the whole truth can be won.
—Cadet prayer, United States Military Academy at West Point
Opdracht
Eerste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Ever since the Revolutionary War, men have been drummed out of the U.S. military for homosexual acts.
Citaten
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Why do so many Americans oppose letting gays serve in the U.S. military? What were they against? What were they afraid of? And what were they hoping for or trying to accomplish? Beneath the instinctive hostility to gay soldiers, what was the real source of opposition to officially welcoming gay and lesbian Americans into the armed forces? The short answer is, in a word, morality. Millions of Americans found (and still find) homosexuality either viscerally repugnant or at least vaguely wrong. It logically follows that if something is bad, it should not be inflicted on an eminent American institution, particularly one that relies on discipline and a heightened sense of its own virtue as an antidote to the unavoidable fact that it’s ultimately about killing people.
While Powell was scrupulous about remaining high-minded, he never succeeded at explaining how the presence of gays would undermine order and discipline, and he never marshaled any actual evidence that gays hurt the often invoked notion of “unit cohesion.” In fact, he barely even tried, opting instead to simply assert the point as a given. Without proof that open gays harmed the military, Powell’s argument boiled down to this: Many straight people prefer not to be considered attractive to gay people.
Of course, military life was all about doing things you might prefer not to: wandering through a hostile war zone in the Iraqi desert in stratospheric temperatures; dismantling deadly IEDs blocking the path of your convoy; literally giving up a limb to defend your country. Service members don’t generally enjoy this stuff, even as they may embrace it as a part of their duty. Some might even regard these grim realities as quite a bit worse than showering with an admirer. By fixating on this particular hardship and suggesting that this alone would break morale, Powell gave his imprimatur not only to the preferences of straight soldiers not to serve with gays but to the notion that there was indeed, something wrong, something unacceptable, about homosexuality. Otherwise, serving with gays would have become just one of the hundreds of things men and women are required to do to become good, disciplined soldiers.
Laatste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
It is not gays and lesbians alone who are silenced by “don’t ask, don’t tell”—it is all of us.
When the "don't ask, don't tell" policy emerged as a political compromise under Bill Clinton in 1993, it only ended up worsening the destructive gay ban that had been on the books since World War II. Drawing on more than a decade of research and hundreds of interviews, Nathaniel Frank exposes the military's policy toward guys and lesbians.
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Dr. Frank examines and rejects the arguments of the supporters of the gay ban, including the idea that homosexuals serving openly will hurt morale and military readiness. He points out that many gays have served openly in the miitary with no problems. Also, many foreign countries including Canada, Great Britain, and Australia have lifted their gay bans and have had found that homosexuals were easily integrated into their units.
Dr. Frank writes about some of the tragedies that have occured because of homophobia in the military-one man was beaten to death with a baseball bat. Other gays and lesbians endured physical abuse and threats. Gays and lesbians, or those suspected of being gay and lesbian, can be investigated and discharged. (