Army fired 11 soldiers in Jan. as openly gay
President consults advisers on military gay ban
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The Army fired 11 soldiers in January for violating the military's policy that gay service members must keep their sexuality hidden, according to a Virginia congressman. Democratic Rep. Jim Moran said he has requested monthly updates from the Pentagon on the impact of the policy until it is repealed.

In a statement released on Thursday, Moran said the discharged soldiers included an intelligence collector, a military police officer, four infantry personnel, a health care specialist, a motor-transport operator and a water-treatment specialist.

"How many more good soldiers are we willing to lose due to a bad policy that makes us less safe and secure?" asked Moran, a member of the House panel that oversees military spending.

The Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy was instituted after President Bill Clinton tried to lift the ban on gay service members in 1993. It refers to the military practice of not asking recruits their sexual orientation. In turn, service members are banned from saying they are gay or bisexual, engaging in homosexual activity or trying to marry a member of the same sex.

The military discharged nearly 10,000 service members under the policy in a 10-year period, from 1997 to 2007. The number fired each year dropped sharply after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, when forces were stretched thin. Whereas more than 1,200 were dismissed in 2000 and again in 2001 for violating the policy, about half as many — 627 — were fired in 2007.

The Pentagon has not released its 2008 figures.

The White House has said President Barack Obama has begun consulting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen on how to lift the ban. But the administration won't say how soon that might happen or whether a group of experts will be commissioned to study the issue in-depth, as some Democrats have suggested.

Likewise, Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill support repealing the ban but have not promised to press the issue immediately.


It is on good authority that there are many many more gays in the military than we know. The military intelligence is full of gay people.

Why in the world, if they want to serve their country are they(the military) being so stupid? From what I hear; they just want warm bodies anyway.

Kat

Being retired military it is a pain in the but to have to deal with guy's hitting on me and tring to order me to show up at their place for some fun????

I did find that women did a better job and kept being gay out of their work place!!!!!

Oh come on now.....I know plenty of gays....I have never seen them come on to straight men. I know it does happen sometimes...but in the military where they know the consequences?

Gay people (men and women) are lined up trying to serve their countries. This a flagrant predjudice.

Kat

my sniper team spotter was gay and he never gave me any problems never hit on me and rarely discussed his sexuality. To this day i still consider him a brother

Actually, gays are allowed to serve, as long as they are not bringing their boyfriends or girlfriends back to their barracks or engaging openly in pda activities on the base. They can do whatever they want off of the base, as long as they don't tell anyone what they were doing. This is a compromise.

I believe that is because women tend to be a bit less promiscuous in the first place. However, you look like a pretty tough guy, if I can handle straight guys coming on to me as a gay woman, I think you can handle it too. I mean come on, you guys are trained to kill for pete sakes, and you can't handle a come on? I find that so hard to believe.

I have a group of old friends, in fact a large group of macho guys from Vietnam, they handled gays just fine both men and woman. Something just doesn't' ring true here. Just tell them to buzz off, how hard is that.

Geeez I am a woman for pete sakes, I am not afraid to tell a woman to leave me alone, hell, a man either.

I bet if some straight male picked on your girl friend you'd know what to do, but you can't handle a gay guy?

War is hell as they say, who would go to war just to come on to the same sex when there are far less dangerous places to get a date.

Here's and experiment, tell all the folks in the service they are not allowed to discuss their sex life period. don't ask don't tell for everybody. Let the straights learn how difficult that actually is. Start paying attention to the conversations around you on a daily basis outside the military and in. Watch how people naturally talk about they families and loved ones. Why the heck would anyone create such a ridiculous rule. No, I don't want to hear about someone sex life in detail either from gays or straights, but to not be able to talk about your life for fear someone might know you are gay is just inhuman. The military is not a dating scene that I am aware of but I wonder just how appropriate the straight guys are about sex in the service. Bet they aren't angels either.

Sure yeah...there's some logical thinking...gay people cannot help themselves...they must "hit on" members of the same sex.

Following that line of thinking I suppose there should be all male or all female military units because...heterosexuals cannot help themselves...they must "hit on" members of the same sex.

Funny...

So, if you are in the service you would be content to serve beside some (due to lowering military service standards) who has been convicted of a violent crime or who cannot read?

Would you rather stand beside a felon who was forced into service to stay out of prison of a gay person who joined the service because they wanted to support and defend this country?

Go on...let your small minded idiocy rule.../puke

Very well said. Men in the military are definately NOT angels. The women in the military live with straight men coming onto them all the damn time. There is much date rape. Rape period.

Women are degraded in the military by men. How often do we hear about that?

I also do not want to hear about anyones sexual behaviors. Most gay people in the military do not go around telling everyone they are gay. But, at times it will come up during everyday conversation. Why should a person hide who they are?

Did you read how many have been fired from the military? It is in the thousands. At a time when we need as many bodies as we can get to join...they are being picky abput the sexual orientation of someone? Are there not more important issues in the military? I mean like "willingness"? If someone is willing to put their asses on the line....and I don't mean in the air....then let'em. Does someones sexual content make them less capable?

Kat

So, you're saying gay men hit on you a lot while you were in the military?