So today I received my first Dont Ask Dont Tell repeal training. The command had to pick two people who would receive the training so that we would be able to brief the rest of our command about what we learned.
Today when I walked into the training room I must say I was a little nervous...nothing freaks me out more than being locked in a room with a bunch of Admirals and other offers. I must say I was quiet impressed when the conversation started. We started the day off from hearing from our CO who pretty much laid it out in simple english "Accept it our get out of my ward room". He then went on to talk about how he though it was stupid that this law was ever put into effect, and that he had proudly served with homosexuals through out his military carrer and owned them all is respect and time.
Pretty much the military is taking this issue head on and letting the troups know that no matter how you feel or what you think you either need to start jiving with this or you need to get out of the way and find something else to do with your life. Most people wouldn't think about this but the military is usually the forrunner when it comes to social issues. The military was the first to offer you a form of Miranda rights and was also the first to offer intrest free loans to it's members. Those are just a couple of the many things they offer.
From what I got from the brief is the fact that you are allowed to serve openly as long as it doesn't conflict with your duties (which is exactly how they do things for straight members). Now as far as partner benifits goes, now that's a differnt story. You can get married and recieve domestic benifits as long as you marry someone and are a resident of a state that allows same sex marriages. When we got to this part of the brief a civilain raised his hand and said "This is bullshit! We are telling them that they are equal, oh but wait not so much because you're not legally married. What are we going to do for those members who are in a relationship with someone and they've been in a committed relationship for years?" At the moment the goverment doesn't really know what it's going to do. Which didn't really suprise me, you can't expect something like the military to have all the answers right out the gate, and contray to what many of my other fellow gay military member family may feel, I think they're doing the best they can at the moment. This isn't something that you can expect to change over night.
They did make it very clear that intolerance and hate crimes would not be tolerated and would face severe punishment.
Personally I think they should think about what they are going to do when it comes to issuing orders to places where (like Bahrain) it is still illegal and you could be killed for being gay. I mean should they completley take those orders off the table or should they say what the hell go for it? Many of the countries we are in at the moment don't even have a SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) which basically states that when a service member fucks up they are returned to base to face punishment. If I were to go out in Bahrain and get in trouble the Kingdom of Bahrain can either send me through thier system and thier jails or they can return me to the base, which is what they normally do for lesser crimes; but don't fool yourself there ARE service members currently in Bahrani jails serving long term sentences.
I must say that I feel honored and excited to be in the military at this moment and time. Today it felt as if I had a front row seat to history, and I felt and intense pride hearing from top brass to another stand up for the fact that this law was unjust and not needed.
Today when I walked into the training room I must say I was a little nervous...nothing freaks me out more than being locked in a room with a bunch of Admirals and other offers. I must say I was quiet impressed when the conversation started. We started the day off from hearing from our CO who pretty much laid it out in simple english "Accept it our get out of my ward room". He then went on to talk about how he though it was stupid that this law was ever put into effect, and that he had proudly served with homosexuals through out his military carrer and owned them all is respect and time.
Pretty much the military is taking this issue head on and letting the troups know that no matter how you feel or what you think you either need to start jiving with this or you need to get out of the way and find something else to do with your life. Most people wouldn't think about this but the military is usually the forrunner when it comes to social issues. The military was the first to offer you a form of Miranda rights and was also the first to offer intrest free loans to it's members. Those are just a couple of the many things they offer.
From what I got from the brief is the fact that you are allowed to serve openly as long as it doesn't conflict with your duties (which is exactly how they do things for straight members). Now as far as partner benifits goes, now that's a differnt story. You can get married and recieve domestic benifits as long as you marry someone and are a resident of a state that allows same sex marriages. When we got to this part of the brief a civilain raised his hand and said "This is bullshit! We are telling them that they are equal, oh but wait not so much because you're not legally married. What are we going to do for those members who are in a relationship with someone and they've been in a committed relationship for years?" At the moment the goverment doesn't really know what it's going to do. Which didn't really suprise me, you can't expect something like the military to have all the answers right out the gate, and contray to what many of my other fellow gay military member family may feel, I think they're doing the best they can at the moment. This isn't something that you can expect to change over night.
They did make it very clear that intolerance and hate crimes would not be tolerated and would face severe punishment.
Personally I think they should think about what they are going to do when it comes to issuing orders to places where (like Bahrain) it is still illegal and you could be killed for being gay. I mean should they completley take those orders off the table or should they say what the hell go for it? Many of the countries we are in at the moment don't even have a SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) which basically states that when a service member fucks up they are returned to base to face punishment. If I were to go out in Bahrain and get in trouble the Kingdom of Bahrain can either send me through thier system and thier jails or they can return me to the base, which is what they normally do for lesser crimes; but don't fool yourself there ARE service members currently in Bahrani jails serving long term sentences.
I must say that I feel honored and excited to be in the military at this moment and time. Today it felt as if I had a front row seat to history, and I felt and intense pride hearing from top brass to another stand up for the fact that this law was unjust and not needed.
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