Petraeus on DADT: Not Sure Soldiers Care

DADT is an immoral act that needs to be lifted immediately. I served in the U.S. Navy for 12 years. But, I had to isolate myself from letting my shipmates get too close and know me personally. I joined to serve my country and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and a few other deployments. There was a short period of time that my supervisors knew about my being gay, and they didn't care! Times are changing and the rest of the country needs to catch up! Because of the vast majority of the RED states and their ass backwards jesus ways, the gov't has to survey the possible outcome? BS! Lift the ban! A previous comment on here made by Daniel made an excellent point. What are the homophobes going to do when they have to fight next to our gay allies? There are so many gays in the military and his/her peers have no idea. How does being attracted to the same gender make them a different sailor, soldier, airman or marine? IT DOESN'T! REPEAL! REPEAL! REPEAL!

So I think what Chris was saying would happen is like what happened when same-sex marriage became legal...nothing.

David Petraeus is AWESOME!!!...he's fighting for our cause and it's men like him that will bring this issue to its much-deserved overturn...the thing that pisses me off about this long process of DADT is...why are the people who are actively serving as the heads of the military saying they should repel...while, listening to people who are either long out of the military or have NEVER served the military at all?...that's the frustrating part...this is SOLELY a MILITARY issue...it has NOTHING to do with whether or not some religious group down in Florida who probably play with snakes thinks they should go in...it has NOTHING to do with the groups worried about how this will affect the "core family values"...this is a problem that affects the MILITARY and the military ONLY...and, if the men commanding the troops say it should be lifted and gay men and women should be allowed to serve openly...these groups need to either shut up or enlist...

Our approach should be to require those who claim to be unable/unwilling/ too irrationally frightened to serve with US gay and lesbian service members to explain how they would remain fit and effective in service to our country should they be called on to serve with gay and lesbian military members of our allies (Israel, Britain, France, etc.) If US officers or enlisted men and women are too "sissy" to serve with gays and lesbian members of the forces of our allies, then they do not appear to be fit for service in the United States military. They should have to explain/justify why they should be retained in our service with such an emotional disability (irrational paranoia) that would prevent effective service in all crisis situations in which they might need to be deployed - such as joint operations with our allies which include openly gay and lesbian service members.

I like Chris' ideas about the gay veterans! I also agree that a 12-month review period is unnecessary. I wish Obama would issue some Executive Orders like that fucktard Bush did and that one of them would be to halt DA/DT dismissals pending the policy review.

So the government will continue to waste our tax dollars, weaken our military, and spit on the US Constitution by throwing out gay/lesbian soldiers because there might be some homophobe soldiers in the military?! Why are we punishing the victim rather than the bigots?! Unless Congress repeals DADT and attaches it to the April defense budget it will never repealed once the Republicans take control of Congress after the November election. Congress needs to act NOW!

I am glad this is going through the US legislature and not just through a magisterial stroke of Obama's pen. It adds much more legitimacy to the process and will be seen as a more valid law by the American people.

Waiting a full year to discuss DADT is just appeasing the reluctant Military Officers to put off the inevitable and keep people uncomfortable who happen to be Gay, and their families. I don't understand how we can be under our American Constitution and not have the GLBT have the same rights as we heterosexual humans. They pay their taxes like we do, and then they have to beg for human rights they should be receiving. Where is the shame in these people that continue to treat GLBT as tho;ugh they are deficient humans? The Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff said it was time to let DADT go! I thought he was the boss of all, was I wrong?

The obvious comment that isn't made often enough is that if there are members of the armed forces who are so unable to interact with someone who is different, they don't belong there in the first place. Some people are gay. Deal with it and don't be a withering flower. Also - all our major allies have nondiscriminatory policies; countries with militaries with unquestioned strength and effectiveness including Great Britain and Israel. We on the other hand share our policy with North Korea, Iran and Yemen. How will our people be able to effectively cooperate with our allies when we have an antiquated discriminatory policy and our allies have openly gay and lesbian troops and commanders that our people will need to work with?

Just lift the damn thing already! Here's what will "happen": A few biblethumping homophobes will whine a little. Then after a few months, people will see that nothing has changed. The same soldiers that people thought were gay will still be gay. Some of them will come out, some will stay closeted. And if they're too chickenshit to do THAT now, then they should start holding training sessions with the troops and invite gay veterans to talk and answer the homophobe's questions. JEEZZZZZZZ!