Openly gays in military.

[East]

Equality is the important part of the equation for me....and I think being able to serve openly is essential.

If someone has agreed to defend this country and die for it...you do NOT ask him/her to pretend to be someone else.

[CellarDweller]

Definitely be open!

[Virge]

I was in during DADT. The best advice I can give is hold yourself to a higher standard of behavior than the rest of the guys and you will have their respect... for life.

Just to give you an example of what I meant about the words in bold... my room mate for the past 5 yrs is a hetero marine buddy. Thru FB he's been telling that me & my guy are getting hitched next July... Since I first posted here I checked email and 3 buds want to come and bring wives.... and my former Captain wants to come and bring his husband.

talk about a head spinner........

And here's Russ, an openly gay marine talking about it... catch more of him on youtube.
He's pretty ugly and hard to look at so just try to stare at the wall behind him.

[ETOTE]

He's pretty ugly and hard to look at so just try to stare at the wall behind him.

That's either your sense of humor or a few synapses in your brain misfired.

[CellarDweller]

Joshua Snyder-Hill, left, and Maj. Stephen Snyder-Hill.

You may remember Stephen, he was the soldier who skyped at the Republican National Convention and said he was a gay soldier, and asked if the GOP contenders wanted to reinstate Don't Ask Don't Tell, and was booed for his question.

[CellarDweller]

[Virge]

That's either your sense of humor or a few synapses in your brain misfired.

You know me... I'm a crack addict...

[Virge]

Thanks for posting those pics Cellar Feller. I'm gonna check them out later on.

[17vs41]

I know very little (nothing) about the military, but my same view applies too all things in life. Equality in everything, for everyone. What would be the problem with having a gay man in the USMC? Would he be too distracted to properly serve?

I love the spartan army thingie, about its immense strength coming from the male bonding between gay couples and how they would fight harder, because they didn't want their lover to consider them weak, as they fought side by side. Supposedly the gay army was the best army ever
Although, that would be heterophobia at its worst! Imagine not allowing heterosexuals to serve, because they cannot properly appreciate the value of the life of the soldier next to them. That'd be tragic!

The problem I seen first hand was while in an infantry unit. This type of unit relies heavily on cohesion and it is vital that everyone is on the same page.

Like it or not, this type of unit attracts certain types from society and to be an openly gay man in an infantry unit can cause many issues. Even if the issue wasn't directly with the gay person, any Marine who befriends him can become the target and this again isn't good for the unit.

In other non combat units, yes, it is much easier to serve openly and this was the point of this discussion.

[Shiner]

Russ marine is a definite boost to confidence, however I am in the military, and we have a fantastic equity and diversity mentality.

I know plenty of out guys and girls that serve here with pride (not an intended joke) and they are loved. Sure we have the times that we make them our brothers and sisters, and part of that is joking, tongue in cheek. For example overweight guys will joke about their weight, LGBT guys and girls joke about their sexuality, so its not for everybody but everyone is accepted as equal, you just have to accept an inappropriate joke time to time.

The military for men in general is pretty homosexual in a way, and even my straight mates admit it, come on your guys and you rely on each other for everything, you shower together, you sleep in the same room, you eat together. There is no shame, it is just life.