Removal of DADT

As you all should know by now, the military has officially removed the "Don't ask don't tell" policy from it's long list of regulations. Homosexual men and women can now serve openly in the military, without fear of being removed from service. I imagine that many homosexuals in the military, or any such individuals that would like to join, view this repeal as a big step towards gay's equal rights. A Navy officer flew out to Vermont to marry his partner at the stroke of midnight, literally being the first legally married, military couple. We are a nation that is trying to accept everyone, regardless of what they do, as long as it is within the law.

As a service member, I am pretty neutral on the subject of homosexuals. What people do is their business. Just do me a favor and keep it your business. Do what you want behind closed doors but please don't strut around flaunting your ridiculous-let me make sure everyone knows I'm flaming hot gay- mannerisms. That is one thing I can't stand. I don't run around flaunting my heterosexuality, trying to make sure I'm in every ones face.

There are going to be a lot of issues with this new policy, I can tell you that right now. First, and probably foremost, will be EO(Equal Opportunity) issues. Anyone who has ever served in the military, or pretty much ever been around a group of guys period, knows how often the following type of statements come up: "What's up fag?", "Man this shit is ssooooo gay.", and "Stop being such a bitch.". These types of statements might cause a lot of soldiers to get into trouble. Before it was never really an issue because it didn't matter if you insulted a gay person. They couldn't really tell on you because they were not allowed to be openly gay. It is going to take some serious time to get people to get that kind of stuff out of their system, and it's going to be a bumpy road.

Another big issue that will follow the repeal of DADT is when, if ever, will a gay marriage be recognized for benefits. Married service members are entitled to things like BAH(money for housing), BAS(money for food), and separation pay when the service member has to leave their family for more than thirty days. As of now gay marriage is not recognized by the United States as a whole, let alone the military. This is going to be the next hurdle for this group of people but I'm sure we will start hearing about it in the near future. Hopefully we can all make it a smooth transition. Whether you agree with homosexual conduct or not, it's not going anywhere. In fact it's more and more visible every day. We might as well all get used to it.