For years homosexuals have been forced to keep silent on this aspect of their life upon entering, and serving in the military. There may be some who say that this is not a First Amendment issue, and that it is not censorship. All they have to do is “don’t ask,” and all you have to do is “don’t tell,” right? However, as we have all read, silencing someone’s voice is clearly censorship; and complying with silence is self-censorship.
Perhaps I’m naïve, but it’s still difficult for me to understand why this was ever such a problem. There have always been homosexuals in the military. Here, in the modern U.S., however, I suppose a lot of the homophobia stems from religious fears. Then, of course, homosexual soldiers were subject to more than the already brutal hazing that apparently goes on (or did go on) in some military sectors.
It seems that society in general may be taking steps toward becoming more tolerant of people who live different lifestyles, and simply are different from themselves (although, unfortunately, there will always be at least some voice of hateful ignorance). There has been some recent news about states allowing same-sex marriages. Most recently (and you have probably read about this) the House of Representatives voted to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy by the U.S. military. It doesn’t look like this is the end of it; it still needs to travel a bit through the system, but it’s on the right track. Not allowing homosexuals to serve freely in the military is just as bad as dismissing a soldier based on the color of his/her skin.
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...just a couple of the many articles out there:
ReplyDeletehttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100528/ap_on_go_co/us_gays_military
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37388025/ns/politics-capitol_hill
I'm home for my sister's graduation from Cornell this weekend and their convocation speaker was Nancy Pelosi, who mentioned the vote on this issue this week. I agree that silencing homosexual servicemen and women's voices is censorship, but I think it goes even further than that. "Don't ask, don't tell" forced homosexuals in the military to close off large parts of their identity in a 24/7 job. Not only could they not talk about their sexual preferences, but they also could not act in other expressive ways that might expose their homosexuality. The First Amendment protects more than speech, and any member of our armed forces should be entitled to complete protection.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that they are dropping the policy, but I am still concerned that the discrimination against homosexuals may not end. The "Dont ask, dont tell" policy is censoring our military men and women to keep a major part of their lifestyle quiet. Think of how hard it is to leave your love ones to fight war....and to have to keep your significant other quiet. it is totally unfair. Our soldiers give up so much of their lives to protect our country. the most we could do is give them is our support to love whoever they want.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely. With the stress these people face in their jobs every day, the last thing they need is to feel less appreciated than the hetereo soldiers. People are even more afraid of what they don't understand, and forcing people to clam up on such an important issue, in my opinion, just makes people more afraid and belligerent.
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