Military Solutions to Bigotry
The big issue in today’s global security circumstances is if giving homosexual individuals chance to serve the military openly would degrade or enhance the people’s readiness. Of late military officials have indicated that they are freely interacting with gay service members. They said that the gay’s presence had no negative effect to the unit as well as personal morale, cohesion and readiness. There are a record 65,000 gays serving the military and one more million gay veterans.
These have been in varying capacities including Combat Engineers, Medical practitioners and linguists. Some gay officers have been known to serve the military efficiently and even mastering complex strategies for the military. The U. S military has been acting ruthlessly against officers said to be homosexuals regarding the don’t ask, don’t tell policy installed in 1994, which has led to the increase of the number of expulsions of the solders. The number of service members discharged in last year rose to 1, 145 from 997 in 1997 and 617 in 1994.
A case of a solder beaten to death with a base ball for allegedly being a gay was seen in July last year. The U. S department of defense has come up with compromise policy to change the military policy of don’t ask, don’t tell in order help cub the worse harassment against homosexual individuals in the military. This however does not fully heal the fundamental injustice posed by the policy which makes the military personnel not to exhibit their sexual orientation and the dare consequences of giving a heavy punishment of expulsion to the culprits (Charters, 1992, 453).
The policy was put in place by the white house to make an end to the much discrimination directed towards homosexuals in the military and senate opponents who sought continuation of the longstanding ban on homosexual in the military. Under this policy, the homosexuals were banned from the military although allowed to serve in condition that they don’t discuss their orientation in sexual matters openly. The military commanders are also barred from questioning the sexual orientation of the solders (Amir, 2004, 274).
This compromise policy was to make an end to witch hunting as well as increasing privacy. All military officers are required by the policy to get some training in their respective boot camps and throughout their careers regarding anti-harassment. Law enforcement officers and military commanders are supposed to undergo some special training. Under these guidelines, the military lawyers should make consultations with senior legal officers at head quarters prior to starting to investigate homosexuality allegations.
Investigation of sexual orientation of the service members demands approval from the highest service level in cases of recoupment of military benefits. Inspectors in every armed services branch would check if the commanders and investigators have received sufficient training. To increase efficiency in this system more training has been administered in all levels. Initially, anti-gay harassment victims have been subjected to investigation and sometimes subsequent expulsion from the military.
To cub this phenomena, the new guidelines demands that the commanding officers should not adopt the attack- the –victim mode. Some officers who have debated over the anti-gay harassment policy have been threatened with expulsion from the service (Smith, 1997, 392). Defense department have vowed to keep on fighting harassment and violence regarding homosexuality and promised that the policy would be carried out fairy. There was supposed to be fair treatment in the ill-conceived “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. All gay solders were entitled humanely treatment.
But this has been reversed since the policy does not safeguard the qualified persons from expulsion. The improvement in the guidelines would see to it that its core ends bigotry. The expulsion of the gay military personnel from the service has led to decrease in the service efficiency as well as the social economic lives of the military gays. Some solders who are expulsed due to homosexuality have faced difficulty times in their lives and their families. This has reduced the willingness of the many gay people willing to take part in the military service.
Some crucial military leaders have also been sent away in allegations of being involved in immoral behaviors. This to certain extent has affected the military significant fields such as medical that have led to even death of other officers. The bigotry in the military has created big division between the supporters of gays to serve and those opposing the idea. It has created insanity, destruction of the force as well as interference of possible solutions. This would stop if every body stops supporting, silently tolerating and accepting it.
Military bigotry is not socially acceptable, justifiable and it is unhelpful to the military in general and the society as a whole. It has posed as the most dangerous and problematic threat to the gay solders and new recruits. Since the army needs some more recruits into the force, there is therefore the need to consider getting patriotic gay who can serve openly. There is sufficient satisfaction in working and knowing with openly gay and lesbians since this does not matter in measuring their job performance or commitment to the shared goals (Friedl, 1996, 184).
Works cited Amir, B. Civil military relations, nation building and national identity: Comparative perspectives. London: Praeger Publishers, 2004; pp. 274. Charters, A. D. Military history and the military profession. London: Praeger Publisher, 1992; pp. 453. Friedl, L. V. Women in the United States military, 1901-1995: a research guide and annotated bibliography. Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1996; pp. 184. Smith, M. L. R. Fighting for Ireland? The military strategy of the Irish Republican movement. London: Routledge,1997; pp. 392.
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