But I will not be silenced that easily. I have both been in the military and dealt with a large red stain on a hanger floor that was the blood of one of my predecessors as an ops officer and worked as a burearcrat in the City and County of San Francisco.

My experience in both is real life and the comments of Michael Dugas below are to the point. In far too many cases, especially if it had the sanction of the “elite” there would be homosexuals willing to attempt to take advantage of others with results disastrous for the good order of the service. We are not ancient Greece.

How about letting the military decide what policies work the best for an effective and high morale environment.

Thank you for supporting his consideration of military service. I know you do a lot for other people’s children who are in the armed forces. Hopefully, they’ll take good care of your own.

Apologies for the threadjack.

But if you haven’t picture this scenario. You’re on your second year of service. You’ve been living in tight quarters with the same seven guys for the last 17 months. Living, eating, sleeping, training and fighting day in and day out. Each of you have saved each others lives numerous times, you’ve helped each other struggle to succeed, watched each others backs and helped each other deal with the loss of a brother to a wound or even death.
You end up talking about everything, there is nothing off limits most of the time. You each end up knowing the others wives, kids, families like they were your own a lot of times never even having met them personally. The relationships you foster, particularly if you were in combat together, that are totally unique to the military in my opinion. You are, on occasion, literally trusting people with your life on a daily basis and that does something to you, it changes you and they way you interact with your brothers. To this day there are men I served with that I have rarely seen or not seen at all since I mustered out that I would come running if they called. I have family members I won’t do that for! =)
Sorry about ranting on, I know I sorta used your reply to keep blabbing on.
Again nice to see ya, hope you’re doing well.

so much of a part as the community and mindset of those in the military. I totally understand that that the current generation is less
concerned with homosexuality in general and that in your personal peer group “nobody was really bothered.” That’s your community and your peer group that you are familiar with and that makes sense to you. I have to say though that as far as the sports teams go I would hazard a abet there were more than you were aware of who might have been uncomfortable say..showering with their gay teammates
but may have kept it to themselves out of fear of being ostracized
in the same fashion as this recent beauty contestant is being treated for being honest about her views on same sex marriage.
Now back to the soldiers reality. Quite a large percentage of those drawn to serve their country in the military are conservative in nature, religious and come from a community / family structure
that, to be honest, is not comfortable with homosexuality. And though some may say it sounds silly combat troops foster a strong
masculine, gung ho , testosterone ridden environment that the vast majority of the soldiers will not be able to associate with being gay.
This creates the strong possibility that the gay individual will end up being an outsider with his team or squad. Such a reality can effect team function, morale and cohesiveness and lead to casualties. Socialization and camaraderie are invaluable to creating a team/squad that trusts each other and functions as a unit. Damage that, interrupt it, diminish it and you risk failure.

Sempre Fi
Do or Die
God
Country
Corps!
That little ditty gives you a bit of insight into those who choose to
become Marines. It’s an extremely Alpha Male mindset and I don’t
believe that that will ever really change that much.

then what do you really know about the attitudes 15-20 years ago? That would be by “people telling you”. or perhaps watching ‘The 70s Show”.

I hang out multi-generationally. I am in the fast-car scene, so I am somewhat in tune with generational differences in attitudes. I’m also former military (out 9 years now). So I have a little bit of experience, one way or another, to gauge this topic. You have no context, no knowledge, no insight. Just an opinion based on God-knows what.

I don’t think you know much outside your bubble, and I’d guess from your comments that you don’t have a single good friend that has joined the military. If you have one, then I suggest you have a long sit-down and ask him about this whole topic.

It ain’t about gay-bashing, it ain’t about some terrible dark fear that somebody might be checking you out in the shower. Just ask. Maybe you’ll get it.

are also not allowed to serve openly. Sodomy, even with one’s spouse, is also a no-no. Just so you know, the military closet isn’t just for gay guys and gals.