You want who?

Khaki trousers, mud, and scary blokey blokes shouting at you in a 4am line-up. A career in the  military is not everyone's tea and fairy cakes,  but it’s not uncommon to find gay men and women in the armed forces. As you might expect, though, it has often been hard for them to be open about it.

For some men and women, a career in the military is exactly what they want. Some have a real sense of patriotism; they want to serve their country.  Our straight counterparts enjoy the respect of a military career so why should we queers be treated any different?  Men who love men can also be  Staunch, manly machines. You can find them at Urge bar every weekend!

The touchy topic of sexuality in the armed forces was  taken to the extreme by the United States military with their "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy which was introduced in 1993. The policy essentially prohibited harassment of ‘closeted’ gay and bisexual service members, but also banned ‘openly’ homosexual people from enlisting. The rationale was that an expressed interest in homosexual acts would pose an unacceptable risk to the morale, discipline and order that are the essence of a cohesive military force. Some say that this was a way for everyone to avoid the issue, and that it was a total head-in-the-sand response to a problem that  shouldn’t even exist.

Winston Churchill once famously said that the Royal Navy was founded on "Rum, sodomy and the lash".  Back in the day, people turned a blind eye to what they knew was happening behind the sand bags. But the arguments around homosexuality in general  became more heated in the USA, particularly over recent decades, with conservative and religious groups coming out and saying how terrible it would be if there were openly gay men or lesbians serving.  No doubt they imagined depraved barrack sex parties at lights-out, and orgies in the trenches. Ridiculous.

DADT was an unintelligent policy, typical of moral panic borne out of sheer ignorance. It’s like a kid putting his fingers in his ears. Of course there were queers in the army, the navy, the airforce, the marines. There always have been, and there always will be.

When society hides from issues like this; from the fact that there are  gay people in the nook and cranny of every community, it shows that we still make  the ruling elite uncomfortable; that they still think there is something wrong with who we are and how we love. It’s wrong.

We're lucky in New Zealand; even though there are still some elements of  prejudice against gays in  our armed forces,  our policy since the 1990s is that it simply doesn't matter. It's not a question the enlisting officers are interested in.

The Pentagon, backed by President Obama, officially ended the 18 year DADT policy on 21 Sept 2011.  Good on you USA, for finally catching up to us Kiwi’s. The famous words of Uncle Sam, at long last, ring true.

Below is a video of US soldier  coming out to his dad after the DADT was repealed. It's pretty awesome.