Gay Marine receives death threats - from his own unit

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Things are not quite as expected upon the repeal of DADT.

http://lgbtweekly.com/2011/11/10/in-afghanistan-unit-greets-gay-marine-with-threats-to-life/

[RKP5637]

1. Bigots and hatefulness come in all shapes and sizes. One would think the

military could be above that.

[Poll_Blind]

2. Any Marine who threatens another Marine based on their sexual preference is a TRAITOR.

There should be zero tolerance for so-called "Marines" who attempt to weaken our armed services from within.

They have no place in an honorable fighting force.

PB

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4. I think they know that they can't discriminate or make threats,

so it's all done in ways that can't be traced back, for example he mentions "talk of throat-cutting" or a more subtle form, such as his feeling that if he got in danger or trouble, they wouldn't come to his help.

[Poll_Blind]

6. God that sucks- I know exactly the shit you're talking about. However, if there...

...is any real attempt to weed out these fuckers the UCMJ is the most versatile tool on the planet to throw the book at people- even for oblique shit like that.

They just have to want to weed that shit out.

I hope they do. I really do.

PB

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7. It will probably take quite a while for feelings to change,

probably a generation! (I consider a generation to be 25 years.) I'm not in the military but both my parents were in the Marine Corps and my grandfather. I assume that everyone in the military realizes they can't discriminate against or harrass gay servicemembers. But just putting that rule in place doesn't immediately change long-standing feelings about gays, usually which are drilled into people from childhood. So it will take a while.

[Scuba]

13. +1

[midnight]

3. This saboteur must be getting his orders to cause trouble...

[MADem]

5. You find them everywhere.

What bothers me about this article is that there's no input from USMC. No one contacted the unit PAO, or someone in the Commandant's office, for a comment about this, here?

I am NOT saying this is the case with this guy, but I was once in a crappy assignment where none of us were too thrilled with everything from the duty to the accomodations. One of my subordinates decided to stage his own little "hate crime" with graffiti and a bit of vandalism to his quarters, in an effort to get the hell out of there. Unfortunately, the guy was stupid, and his spray paint artistry created a fine mist of blowback on his working uniform and shoes. Didn't take NIS (it was NIS back then, not NCIS like on the tee vee) long to figure out what really happened.

Again, I am not averring that this is the case with this guy, but the article should really include some commentary from the USMC chain of command--even if the comment is something generic, as it's unlikely they'd get terribly specific unless they got a signed release from the Marine who is the subject of the article.

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8. I'm just guessing that they didn't ask the USMC for input,

out of concern that even doing that might jeopardize the Marine in some way. He might be "punished" in some way as a "whistleblower" or similar. Just a guess.

[MADem]

10. I can guarantee you that someone in the Public Affairs office at HQ, USMC

has passed a copy of this to a senior member (or more) of the commandant's staff. It may have even been mentioned in morning brief, even without knowing the name. Odds are excellent that someone in SECNAV's office has seen it as well.

They have some mighty-mighty search and research tools nowadays. Back in the old days, they'd subscribe to a quaint thing called a clipping service (and miss a lot). Later, we got the "news" by a telegram of sorts. Nowadays, it's all online and they don't miss a trick.

Mike Mullen (ADM, USN, RET, and up to very recently the CJCS) was very pro-repeal of DADT as a matter of honor, and most of the people in place at the top tier levels (SECNAV, USMC HQ) are pretty much geared to that same mindset. I don't think they'd demand a name if generic policy questions were asked about this matter, and it wouldn't surprise me if NCIS DID do a little nosing around to find out what's what in response to this.

No unit commander is going to permit a servicemember to be in danger because of DADT opposition if he or she knows what's up. It's a STUPID way to end a career. I hope this kid takes it up the chain, and does what he has to do to stop this shit.

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11. OK, thanks

[Aristus]

9. So much for that vaunted Marine esprit de corps...

What a bunch of thugs.

[sakabatou]

12. WTF?!

[lebkuchen]

14. His unit had better adapt or get the hell out

or else they will be kicked out. A huge draw-down is a comin'.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

15. 404 error - is the link OK? N.T.