MucheDumbre

There used to be an old TV show that in its narration included the phrase, “there are 8 million stories in the naked city”, and I was trying to riff off of that to begin a piece on gays in the military, but I just couldn’t make it work.  There are a million gays in the naked military?  There are a million naked gay stories in the military?  Naahh, this was not going anywhere.

 

But neither is this subject.  Repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell will probably be a first 100 days agenda item for President Obama; at least the executive order part of it.  Although no doubt the actual law (Public Law 103-160, Section 654, Title 10) will come up in the new Congress as well.  Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher has already stated she plans to introduce legislation this year to repeal the law.  So one way or another, DADT is going down.

 

But as to those stories, there are a lot of them.  DADT policy creates a weird loophole that allows gays to serve, in violation of Public Law 103-160 which prohibits homosexuals from serving in the military, as long as they keep their gay shit quiet.  This creates all sorts of ambiguity for the military, Commanders, and gay service people themselves.

 

Several years ago, there was an active duty Army unit  that was turning over several items of equipment to a local Reserve unit.  I was in the Reserve unit at the time and was part of the group being trained on the new hardware and software.  Now I hate to pull out stereotypes, however they are a lot of fun and in this case accurate.  Our trainer was a female Sergeant who just looked lesbian.  At a distance, and close up for that matter, it was hard to tell if this was a dude or a chick.  Needless to say, we waited on following the lead from other people in her unit before determining which pronoun to use.

 

Driving from one location to another, a bunch of us were in a car following hers, which was festooned with pink triangle, rainbow, and other assorted and like-minded bumper stickers.

 

“Ha!  I knew it!”

 

“Know what?” replied my crusty old Warrant Officer.

 

“She’s gay!” I replied.

 

“Just because she seems kind of mannish?  That’s not really fair.”

 

“No, because of all the gay bumper stickers.”

 

“Eh?”  As far as following pop culture, and its various buttons, stickers, and icons, he had lost track shortly after the smiley face.

 

As we pulled up to the next training facility, he decided to trump me and my alleged bumper sticker lore.  “I’m going to go ask her what those stickers mean.” 

 

“No don’t!” said everyone in the car in unison.  But he wouldn’t be deterred; he walked right up to her, ready to prove his point that I had no idea what those stickers meant.

 

“Hey, Sergeant, I was meaning to ask, but what do all of those bumper stickers on your car mean?”

 

Sergeant Deer-in-the-headlights froze and her eyes got big.  “Uh… those are uh… about people, and uh human rights…”

 

“Thanks.” Replied the crusty old Warrant Officer.  He turned to me and smiled all smug like.  “Told ya.”

 

Later I was speaking with one of the other people in her unit.  Yes, everyone knew she was gay, including the commander.  How could they not considering her bumper sticker plastered car?  But she was good at her job so everyone minded their own business.  Someone doing temporary duty at the unit, a new arrival, or some meandering crusty old Warrant Officer could have blown that at any time though.  No doubt that Sergeant thought her military career was in jeopardy the moment that Warrant started asking about her bumper stickers.  That was probably not the only time she had one of those moments.

 

Not surprisingly, most of the time military people are cool about that.  People know, and just don’t say anything.  Sometimes people are actually protected.  One time years ago, one of the guys in my unit was spotted by some off duty MPs kissing another dude in a downtown club.  The MPs decided to report that to my unit’s security officer, wanting the kissing bandit’s security clearance pulled and his lips and all processed out of the military.  After having to answer our security officer’s question of, “What were you doing in a gay club? (working security),” she promised she would take care of it and then promptly tossed the complaint in the garbage.

 

But what about “good order and discipline,” the standard answer for those who oppose openly gay people serving in the military?   For people who have never served in the military or who served in the Air Force, it’s a meaningless statement meant to hide bigotry.  But there are real issues that arise in having openly gay people serve in the military.

 

It certainly brings sexual harassment to a new level.  At the post where I had advanced individual training, one of the girls in the class ahead of me would leer and make comments and gestures to the girls in the common shower area.  This was relayed to me months later by someone who was subject to this almost daily display of abuse.  “Why didn’t you just complain to someone about it?”  I asked, using dreaded guy logic.  “I just didn’t know what to say.”  She replied.  Harassment is a hard charge to make when the harassed is more embarrassed about it then the harasser.  If there had been a naked guy coming into the female shower area, giving the old once over, the situation would have ended almost immediately.

 

And that’s part of barracks living, not college dorm living.  I spend two and a half years living in a barracks showering in a common open shower area with half a dozen other guys.  None of them were gay (that I knew of) but it would have made for an uncomfortable showering time if some of them had been openly gay.

 

These two lesbians walked into a bar… well actually it was their Company Commander’s office.  Taking advantage of the open door policy, they met with the commander, and rather than just explaining that they wanted chaptered (discharged based on various military regulations) out, they proceeded to make out in front of the commander.  Rather than freak out, the female commander got the message instantly.  “OK got it, you want out.  I’ll start the paperwork.  Dismissed.”  Of course the wheels of military bureaucracy turned slowly so they were not actually discharged for several months.  In the meantime, they shared a room, their own lesbian love nest in the barracks. Policy for that unit was that sex was not allowed in the barracks.  On the other hand, who else was comfortable with sharing a room with these two?  And how would you enforce it?

 

By the way I knew both of these gals and neither one was hot. 

 

Just thought I would toss that out there.

 

Being gay in the military is easy if, like the bumper stickered gay training Sergeant, you go home to your own place every night, and the personal is easily separated from the professional.  Not so easy is showering together and living together.  In many military situations, and I could probably say in most cases on the two major deployments we have going on right now, it’s a little more difficult.

 

Maintaining good order and discipline is not the worry of either the incoming President or the incoming Congress; politics is.  But at the unit level where these policies have to be enforced, I expect Commanders, Sergeants Major, and First Sergeants are going to have their hands full dealing with openly gay service people in extremely cramped conditions where privacy is a luxury.  Will it be no sex in the barracks, unless you are gay and sharing a room, or will there have to be special gay shower hours for open shower areas?  Are you being harassed if you are straight and have to share a room with a gay guy, or is the gay guy being harassed by having to share a room with a straight guy?  If two gay lovers can share a room; why not two straight ones?  Would it be better for a male gay soldier and a female gay soldier to share a room?

 

Having worked along side gay soldiers I would hazard that most of the time it’s a non issue.  But if I were responsible for implementing any policy for removing DADT I would prefer that it be handled the same way policies regarding female soldiers are handled, such as not be allowed to serve in low echelon combat arms units or being excluded from combat arms military occupational specialties.  That would never happen of course.  It will be all or nothing, and given the prevailing political winds, I would guess “all” over “nothing.”

 

It’s a lot easier for the military to handle gay military members (heh – I said handle members!) when they have an incentive to be in the closet.  It will be a lot tougher when track lighting is installed in barracks rooms. So, follow the Milblogs.  That’s where the real story will be told of how these policies will be implemented.  Only the successes or clear examples of discrimination and bigotry will be in the main stream media.  I expect some entertaining reading.