Bigotry in the Military by Any Means Necessary

From by Brian Leubitz at Prop Eight Trial Tracker:

Now that the end of DADT (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell) is just looking like a matter of timing, homophobia is coming out of the woodwork from top military brass. This is the latest on how they’re going to try to stigmatize gay and lesbian members of the military.

The Marine Corps’ top officer said he would not force straight Marines to share rooms with gay service members if Congress repeals the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law and allows gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the armed forces.

Gen. James T. Conway, the commandant of the Marine Corps, told the Web site military.com in an interview published Friday that an ‘overwhelming’ number of Marines would be opposed to bunking with someone of a different sexual orientation. As a result, he said, the Corps might have to ditch its double-bed rooms and offer single rooms to everyone. (Washington Post)

I get so sick of this, mostly because what these generals are saying is that somehow our soldiers are not only less professional than European militaries, but that they are also less professional than your average college freshman. Furthermore, in times of war, these Marines will be housed in barracks or tents in large groups. Are you going to segregate them there too? It’s simply a preposterous notion, and completely unfeasible.

And guess what, General Conway, there are straight soldiers sharing a room with gay soldiers right now. Yes, it’s true. There have been and will continue to be gay Marines, with or without DADT. It’s a useful fiction perhaps, but continuing to pretend that there aren’t any is laughable. And it simply reduces your own credibility.

But Conway has a reason to be pushing this:

Nathaniel Frank, a senior research fellow at the Palm Center at the University of California at Santa Barbara, said it was highly unlikely that Congress would permit separate rooms or other facilities based on sexual orientation if it votes to end the ban.

“If you have separate facilities, you end up breeding resentment,” Frank said. “I think [Conway] knows that, and I think he was shooting something across the bow to test the limits of how much opponents can do on this.”

This is exactly right. Conway and other ‘reasonable’ generals are gently bringing up logistical issues, pretending that the average marine has very little maturity or professionalism, in an attempt to undermine, stigmatize, and isolate gay and lesbian soldiers. It simply is not acceptable, and his superiors should let him know as much.