Gay Pride at the Pentagon

My drill sergeant, SFC Jason Hurst, in the first little talk he gave us late at night in those old wooden barracks at Fort Polk back in 1974, included the statement that the only pigmentation that is recognized by the Army is green. I’ll mention that SFC Hurst is black.

Fast forward to 2010; We were told before the military repealed their Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy that required gays to keep their sexual proclivities out of public view, that gays only wanted the opportunity to serve, that was their justification for repealing the old policy. That they couldn’t serve like the rest of us while hiding their sexual inclinations. And service was the overarching goal.

Fast forward to 2012; Well, since the successful repeal of the DADT policy, we’ve found that service isn’t the overarching goal because the goal posts have been steadily moving up the field. Now, for some reason, the Pentagon, according to the Washington Post, thinks that they need to recognize all of the people who violated the DADT policy;

For the first time, the Pentagon will mark gay pride month just as it marks other events honoring racial or ethnic groups, Defense Department officials said.

Officials declined to give details about the event but said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes it’s important to recognize the service of gays in the armed forces.

How about recognizing the service of male service members who perform cunnilingus? Don’t they deserve recognition for their service? Or female service members who perform fellatio? ANd, of course, service isn’t what’s important, according to reportage at the Associated Press;

That’s a reference to the fact that same-sex couples aren’t afforded spousal health care, assignments to the same location when they transfer to another job, and other benefits. There was no immediate change to eligibility standards for military benefits in September. All service members already were entitled to certain things, such as designating a partner as one’s life insurance beneficiary or as designated caregiver in the Wounded Warrior program.

As for other benefits still not approved, the department began a review after repeal with an eye toward possibly extending eligibility, consistent with the federal Defense of Marriage Act and other applicable laws, to the same-sex partners of military personnel.

Because “service” actually means “benefits”. So at a time when the Department of Defense is complaining that they can’t afford to live up to their commitments to retirees, who have already fulfilled their commitment to the DoD, in the interests of political correctness, the DoD trying to encumber the system by adding even more beneficiaries who largely didn’t fulfill their commitments.

So if this really was about providing gays solely with an opportunity to serve, we wouldn’t be having this whole discussion about gay pride days at the Pentagon and benefits.

If I were single and had a room mate who was either male or female and I wanted to get them benefits, and I’m not gay, I wouldn’t be able to get them military benefits – is that’s what’s next because I chose to be single and celibate?

Yeah, I’m not a “homophobe”, whatever that means, and I have nothing against gays serving openly, I’m just ashamed that too many people fell for the disingenuous “service” thing and that we’re not talking about service anymore.

Category: Big Army, Military issues