Segregated Barracks

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

...Clifford Stanley, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in a court filing that ending the antigay policy (DADT) would require training, and reworking regulations on issues like housing, benefits and standards of conduct. He said the Army had to consider the “rights and obligations of the chaplain corps.” Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said the military had to consider whether barracks should be segregated and whether partners of gay soldiers should have benefits.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/opinion/17sun3.html?_r=4



Regarding the idea of segregated barracks, approve or disapprove?

[bemildred]

1. "Separate but equal"? Is that the idea? nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. I am not shocked they have the gall

And yes gay will be the new black.

Jesus H. Christ they should like open a history book.

[Ozymanithrax]

3. Desegratate the barracks...men and women...

sexual preference is irrelevant.

Put the Chaplins in the barracks with everyone else.

[LWolf]

4. Aren't barracks already segregated? By gender? nt

[Kaleva]

35. Yes they are.

[Horse with no Name]

5. Why are people so arrogant as to think

that EVERYONE wants to FUCK them???
Please.
Gay people don't want to fuck everyone they meet, just because they are the same sex, just like I don't want to fuck everyone I meet of the opposite sex.
And Secretary Gates?
I wouldn't fuck you with a 10-foot pole, and I imagine that there isn't a gay soldier who would give you a second look. Get over yourself.
Oh..I disapprove of segregated barracks. I think adults can control themselves. I just think these homophobes are afraid they will be rejected by yet another gender.

[RKP5637]

10. Well said!!! And it's usually the gross ugly ones that think everyone is

after them. And like everyone is after the old F'ers like Gates. These people need to get a life.

[sarge43]

12. I've always liked what one gay once said

Straight men vastly overrate their attractiveness.

As a straight woman I'll say, "snap".

So four sets of barracks for the lower grade enlisted, four for the noncoms, four BOQ for company grade officers and four for field grade. Yeah, that will work well.

Further, how does Gates purpose to determine gender orientation and, oh yeah, what if GI Joe or Jane is bi? Does s/he get a bunk in both sets?

:eyes:

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

16. I think bisexual GIs will have to be in solitary

They're too unpredictable... best not to take chances.

I am waiting to hear about the segregated foxholes. I guess a little curtain will be part of the standard kit, alongside the trenching tool

[sarge43]

19. I'm waiting for the segregated ships.

As I understand, on the smaller ones, there's no freakin' privacy or room. Segregated wards in the hospitals and dispensaries? What about field and combat conditions? Will gays and lesbians have to wear the pink triangle so there's no mix up and they won't be assigned to a straight tent or bunker?

Onion could have made this up ... or Nazis.

[Kaleva]

31. Ships are already segregated and have been for decades.

Women assigned to ships have always had their own berthing and bathroom facilities and no male is allowed unless on official business and they first make their presence known and give the reason why they need to be there.

[uncommon]

36. Considering the risk of rape within the military, this makes perfect sense.

[csziggy]

20. The problem is that many military members cannot control themselves

Look at the statistics of rapes on female members of the military. While there are many fine people in the military, there is a small group that are sexually aggressive, mostly towards women.

I think the military that know those figures are worried that gays will be as criminally aggressive as those rapists, even though there is no evidence that is probable.

[surrealAmerican]

30. It's projection:

... these are straight men who really do want to f*ck every woman they see.

[yurbud]

6. that implies kids in college dorms and summer camp cabins are braver than our military

the rest of us share rooms with gays at various times without laying awake all night waiting to be raped.

I think the troops are brave enough, but the people in the Pentagon for some reason don't want to end the stigma of homosexuality.

[lunatica]

7. What is that definition of insanity again?

Jesus!

[Yeshuah Ben Joseph]

24. Are you asking Me?

Because when it comes to this particular insanity, I'm as amazed by it as you mortals are!

[MrScorpio]

8. What a damned stupid idea...

"Segregated barracks"? Gay and straight troops are ALREADY together... Talk about disrupting good order and discipline, it's the LEADERSHIP that's undermining it, NOT GAY AND STRAIGHT TROOPS.

As far as the benefits are concerned, if gay and lesbian troops are married like their straight counterparts, then those spouses are just as entitled to those benefits, just like their straight counterparts.

No brainer.

[RKP5637]

9. The BS on this is getting so thick it's hard to see the initial objective. Do they think

there are like several million gay people invading the service immediately. These folks are already there serving the country and risking their lives too.

Man am I fed up with hearing about this DADT BS. End the damn thing and be over with it. A couple of dozen plus other countries did this with no problem, but not the US. The US agonizes over everything until it becomes a complete F'en mess. It often amazes me the US ever got as far as it has.

As another poster said, they can just change gay to black/negro and they have their playbook arguments for them, sounds like that's what they're following, trying to bring discrimination into everything, something the US is famous for...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. "The Military" is supposed to follow orders. At least that's what they told me.

When I was wasting 4 years of my life in the Marine Crotch.

[Cirque du So-What]

13. True to form, the lone voter for segregation declines to comment

Unable or unwilling to articulate a position, yet knowing 'I'm agin' it!'

[uppityperson]

26. I'd like to hear the reasoning of the 2 who Approve. Seriously, I would.

[Cirque du So-What]

28. You won't hear anything from them

It's a cowardly, stoopid stance that is indefensible. Go on - we dare you to defend a new manifestation of apartheid in the egalitarian military - especially while posting on a Democratic board.

[TexasObserver]

14. Is this 1942?

[LonePirate]

15. Sounds like Gates is bucking for a promotion! Those anti-LGBT attitudes run all the way to the top.

[Jamastiene]

17. I would be deeply insulted...

if I was a straight member of our armed forces and heard that.

What kind of wimps do they think our military are?

If they honestly think the straight people in our military cannot be in the same barracks as gay people in our military, then how do they expect our military to go fight anyone? If they think our military cannot even handle that little bit of difference between people, how the fuck do they think our military will be able to fight an enemy who would behead, burn, and drag their bodies through the streets in the middle east? I mean, really. Think about how preposterous that is.

It's almost like the rules were made in a tree house by 9 year old boys who are still in that phase where they hate girls. What? Are they afraid of straight military members catching cooties or something? Like they think "teh gay" will spread if they let gay people in our military say who they really are instead of being forced to hide it?

If gay military service members are willing to lay down their lives for this country, why can't this country, at the very LEAST, let them be who they are while they die for us?

[Withywindle]

23. That's something I really don't get.

The military is supposed to be the "best and the bravest", right? People who willingly go out into incredible danger every day. People who know they face not only death, but possibly even worse, the most horrifying kinds of maiming and disfigurement and trauma.

But they're also such fragile delicate little flowers that the very idea of the vaguest remote possibility of being checked out by someone they're not interested in must be avoided AT ALL COSTS?!? Feh. I don't think much of their alleged "courage" if something as harmless as a lingering look to the cock is what makes them snivel and cry. (Not that I really believe it does, for a second, for any but the dregs of the dregs who shouldn't be in the service anyway--this fear is exploited by the brass for deeply dishonest purposes.)

Speaking as a woman, I bet the straight women in the military are a lot less upset by the possibility that a lesbian colleague might sneak a discreet glance than they are by the fact that RAPE is rampant, perpetuated by men supposedly on their own side. Oh, but RAPE is OK if it's heterosexual, right? Seems like the higher-ups really do hold that position, when you compare the amount of attention paid to superstitious DADT-related fear-mongering versus efforts to stop the real violence that's really happening to real women right now.

[sarge43]

37. Concur

In 21 years and most of it spent in barracks I was never, not once, in any way made to feel uncomfortable, let alone threaten, by any lesbian colleague.

On the other if I had a promotion for every time a hetero serviceman made me feel uncomfortable to threaten, I'd be queen-empress of the known universe.

[rocktivity]

18. Segregated barracks? I remember that movie!

As for benefits for partners of gay soldiers, they should get them if they're legally married--and they SHOULD be able to get legally married.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[sarge43]

21. I agree, but there's an elephant in the orderly room

and it may crush Gates - the sodomy article, 125, UCMJ and it defines sodomy as any sexual activity other than genital contact between a man and woman. Yes Virginia, oral sex is legally punishable under the UCMJ - even by married personnel. So denial of BAS and BAQ could be the least of the problems for a legally married same sex couple in the service.

I'm really surprise he even mentioned benefits.

[Unvanguard]

22. Any such proposal is despicable and intolerable.

An ending of DADT must be accompanied by a non-discrimination rule.

However, I am not convinced that any such proposal is in fact under consideration. Can anyone give an actual quote from Secretary Gates indicating that it is?

[uppityperson]

25. This makes no sense. Have I got this right?

Hetero men cannot be in the same barracks as gay men because they will be uncomfortable about teh gay looking at their butts. So let's put all teh gay together so they can check just check each other's butts out.

But what if there is a gay man who doesn't want everyone to check out his butt? I know it is rare but I bet there is some gay man who is able to control himself and isn't involved with f*ing everything he sees. What about him? Or her? Guess he/she doesn't count because, after all, is teh gay.

Please realize that I am being facetious here, sarcastic even.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

29. Some very good points there

[lumberjack_jeff]

34. The logic of the military;

We put men and women in separate quarters to minimize the problems of military readiness that sex interactions cause.
We confine all the gay men together in their own quarters to... what?

[uppityperson]

38. Exactly! I mean, you KNOW they can't control themselves so...put the all together?

:sarcasm: because it is needed these days sometimes.

[MineralMan]

27. Well, hat's a stupid idea. What do they do now?

There are gays and lesbians in the military right now. How would things be any different after DADT is dead?

[Statistical]

32. Barracks are already segregated by sex. Why? n/t

[Donald Ian Rankin]

39. Because the majority of soldiers of both genders prefer it that way, I guess.

The argument against segregating straight and gay soldiers is that only one side of the segregation - if that - wants it.

[HughMoran]

33. Partners have benefits - yes!

Segregated barracks? What a fucking stupid idea.