...the Constitution of the United States, it lies within the discretion of the Congress to establish qualifications for and conditions of service in the armed forces. (4)The primary purpose of the armed forces is to prepare for and to prevail in combat should the need arise. (5)The conduct of military operations requires members of the armed forces to make extraordinary sacrifices, including the ultimate sacrifice, in order to provide for the common defense. (6)Success in combat requires military units that are characterized by high morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion. (7)One of the most critical elements in combat capability is unit cohesion, that is, the bonds of trust among individual service members that make the combat effectiveness of a military unit greater than the sum of the combat effectiveness of the individual unit members. (8)Military life is fundamentally different from civilian life in that— (A)the extraordinary responsibilities of the armed forces, the unique conditions of military service, and the critical role of unit cohesion, require that the military community, while subject to civilian control, exist as a specialized society; and (B)the military society is characterized by its own laws, rules, customs, and traditions, including numerous restrictions on personal behavior, that would not be acceptable in civilian society....
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...in the Military As time continues, things that we found unusual and unrealistic have become normal and not such a burden to us. The military has been a key role on moving forward with many of these hush hush discussions many try to sweep under the rug. Now that the military is allowing openly gay, lesbian, and bi-sexual personnel into the military, there should be no reason for them to discriminate on trans-gender personnel who are trying to serve their country. In order for us to go forward with my statement I need you all to be opened minded. We all have an opinion but in the end it’s up to us to make the change for our future. The Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) era was a time when homosexuals where not allowed to be who they where without getting in trouble. The term was coined after President Bill Clinton in 1993 signed a law (consisting of statue, regulations, and policy memoranda) directing that military personal could not openly be a homosexual in the military (Britannica, 2015). In order for Clinton to win his seat in the white House he needed his sponsors to support him and having openly gays in the military was not something they wanted. Even though Clinton was for it he had to satisfy his supporters. After many discussions and fights back and forth Clinton finally came to an agreement that homosexuals could join the military but not be opened about it. Many officers were overwhelmingly opposed to that approach, fearing that the mere presence of homosexuals in the...
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...Homosexuality in the Military John P. Wernegreen DeVry University Professor Foley Homosexuality in the Military The issue of homosexuality in the military has long been considered a taboo subject, not to be discussed openly, and essentially prohibited with the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy established in the 1990’s. However, attitudes have changed and evolved over the years making homosexuality in general less of a stigma and more of an acceptable lifestyle that some people live. After much deliberation and research, the Department of Defense (DOD) has established its own set of rules and regulations, thus continuing the controversy and discrimination of homosexuality within its ranks and the redefining of its regulations. Beginning in 1916, the United States military began issuing an administrative discharge called a blue discharge. This discharge, also known as a “blue ticket,” was neither honorable nor dishonorable, but it “became the discharge of choice for commanders seeking to remove homosexual service members from the ranks…” (Serving, para. 1). The policy for discharging service members found to be homosexual or engaging in homosexual acts prior to these “blue tickets” was to court-martial them for sodomy, imprison them and subsequently dishonorably discharge them. When the United States began to mobilize troops in World War II, though, it was no longer practical to hold court-martials due to time constraints and troop movements, so commanders began administratively...
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...Serving in the military is for many the most honored position they will hold in their lifetime. Many dedicate their entire lives to serving their country. For some soldiers however their dream of proudly serving their country was cut short because they are gay, lesbian or bisexual. America’s attitude towards acceptance of homosexuals has continued to grow over the past couple of decades, but full acceptance and equality is still far off. Nowhere are attitudes towards homosexuality more conservative than in the U.S. military, yet even here attitudes are slowly evolving towards acceptance and equality. Gays and lesbians were banned from serving in the military until 1992 when President Clinton signed into law “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, which allowed homosexuals to serve as long as they did not discuss their sexuality, and the military could not ask about it. The debate about whether homosexuals should be allowed in the military at all and of whether they should be allowed to be open about their sexual orientation while serving has been ongoing over the last thirty years. Sexuality has no bearing on one’s ability to be a good soldier or on the cohesion of a military unit. Gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military, because the policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is harmful to both soldiers and the military. Human sexuality is complicated, yet we live in a society that tries to only see such issues in a black and white fashion. Homosexuals have been a...
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... | A Historical Critique of Homosexual Exclusions from the Armed Forces using the concepts of Michel Foucault From 1989 to 1999, the time period of the Clinton Administration, a homosexual force entered the American consciousness. Court cases and rhetoric of the 80s incited a discourse in which homosexuality was "re-articulated, re-negotiated, and unmistakably re-repressed" (Davis 3). Supreme Court judgment and actions taken by Congress with the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy exemplify theories of sexuality and power expressed in the philosophies of Michel Foucault. Foucault was a French-born philosopher historian. He examined social institutions such as medicine, psychiatry, the prison system, and the human sciences in general. Specifically he focused on how these institutions relate to power interactions. For a time he was associated with structuralism, which is an intellectual movement in which the culture of humanity is semiotically analyzed. However he distanced himself from the structuralism movement after the 60s. He wrote on a wide array of topics from knowledge to power and discourse. He considered himself "Nietzschean" (Fox 169). In viewing his own system of philosophy this way, he rejected the postmodernist label attributed to him. In fact, he held that his work was in line with the modernity of the philosophies of Kant. In The History of Sexuality Foucault examined the role of sex and gender in power relations. This three volume...
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...explain the specifics from commencement, to repeal. The Injustice of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Homo. Faggot. Queer. Dyke. These are some slurs many homosexuals have been subjected to. In the land of equality and freedom, everyone deserves equal treatment. Ironically, those who serve their country are a victim of the most unjust and unequal treatment; most notably the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Policy, (DADT) which was passed to subjugate gay service members. This policy has a long and unclear history but one thing is clear: it has robbed proud homosexual service members of their honor. Its origin, effects, repeal, and the effects of its repeal have illustrated this truth. In March 1778 in Valley Forge, PA the first homosexual case in the military came when a male officer in the Army was dishonorably discharged for having sex with a fellow soldier. This was a violation of the Articles of War, a “precursor to the Uniform Code of Military Justice”. During World War II, proactive investigations proceeded to seek out homosexuals in the military; not too long after in 1957, Navy Captain and chairman of the United States Navy Board of Inquiry S.H. Crittenden released a report with evidence to suggest homosexuality did not pose a risk to military readiness. In 1981 Department of Defense (DOD) Directive 1332.14 clearly outlined that any “homosexual status is grounds for discharge” (Breza, 2007), regardless what the Crittenden report found. Then in 1993, President William J. Clinton passed a law...
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...jumped to your aid and helped you out, did you stop to think about what their sexual preference was and if so would it have mattered to you? Well if you are in one of the United States Military branches, it is almost guaranteed to have come up and it has caused enough of an issue, commotion and publicity that the President of the United States had to step in and put into place a policy for what is the beginning of a giant human rights and equality motion in history. Even in this new century, who you choose to have sex with or love, still appears to be an issue for many people. Some even know that this person may one day save your life and have your back and it’s still an issue for some. The struggles of discrimination and inequality were all too frequent in the lives of homosexuals who were serving or trying to serve in the United States Military started to catch attention with the media and caught the attention by many who had voices to make a difference for equality. During the civil rights movement in the 1960’s, homosexuality wasn’t a right that was openly fought for. Albeit that today, most people view the right to love whom they choose as a civil, and human right. Many people believe that a relationship should be between a man and a woman and therefore the rights of the homosexual community were not fought over in any of the early civil rights movements. Some of these biased thoughts are said to have stemmed from the impact of the churches and Christianity, where...
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...the gay community has also raised a number of more immediate policy issues. Some of those have affected only the homosexual community, but others have had wider relevance such as AIDS research and treatment. As we noted earlier, the style of political activism invoked on gay rights issues has been less that of interest groups and more that of a movement. Still, as that movement has become institutionalized, so too have the forms of interaction between it and government. One of the most important political milestones in that interaction occurred during the Clinton administration with respect to military service. During his first presidential campaign, Bill Clinton had advocated greater rights for the gay community and had received overwhelming support from those voters. One issue that his gay supporters wanted addressed was elimination of the prohibition against homosexuals serving in the military. Once elected, President Clinton encountered substantial resistance from the military to any change in the existing policy. military leaders defended their traditional stance of excluding homosexuals by arguing that permitting homosexuals to serve alongside heterosexual soldiers would be detrimental to morale. The solution that the Clinton administration developed was labeled "don't ask, don't tell", meaning that there would be no efforts on the part of the military to seek out gays within its ranks so long as those individuals did nothing that was indeed detrimental to the morale...
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...Homosexuality in the Military Leondre L. Torrance Instructor: Lisa Smoot Sociology 17 February 2012 Introduction Modern controversy over the rights of gay people to serve in the military aside, the reality is that homosexuality as existing within the military is as old as the history of armed forces. Clearly, it cannot be otherwise, as homosexuality itself is an orientation within humanity, and consequently as old as mankind's origins. What changes is sociological perspective, and nowhere is this factor more keenly evident than in how the overt presence of homosexuality is acknowledged by the military and accepted by the societal base. Different cultures of different epochs have viewed this subject in varying ways, depending, not unexpectedly, on the belief systems in place in those cultures. No matter its direct purpose or size, the military of any nation must still be a representation of that nation's values. Consequently, the perceptions of each regarding homosexuality translate to how acceptable, or unacceptable, it is within the armed forces. It is therefore all the more interesting that the United States, arguably the most liberal and democratic of modern nations, has so long reflected an ambiguity, if not outright hostility, regarding gays in the military rarely seen in ancient, and supposedly less enlightened, eras. The U.S. consistently prides itself on a commitment to individual liberties, and most emphatically since the turbulence of the...
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...Women, on the other hand, are more likely to accept a low to moderately paying job and stay there without asking for regular raises or negotiating their salary. Certain researchers have looked at loyalty as a common trait among women in the workplace, suggesting that women are less likely to leave their place of employment due to a strong sense of nurturing and involvement in their current place of work. Whatever the reason, it is statistically proven that the average women will make a significant amount less than the average man over the course of her lifetime. Women are often encouraged to embark on a certain career path due to her gender, and discouraged from attempting to play a role that has typically been reserved for a man. Nursing, education and childcare are often thought of as good roles for females, leaving women very little space in more male dominated fields like construction, finance and business. In politics, women make up a small sliver of the total elected officials in the United States. Women account for less than a quarter of Congressional seats, making up about 18 percent of the 535 seats in Congress. There are only 20 female senators out of the 100 total and only five female Governors across all 50 states. When running for political office women often face discriminatory questioning that detracts from their political viewpoints, being forced to respond to questions about mothering and their wardrobe at a much higher rate than men, despite the large percentage...
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...timeline (Appendix B) for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) community in the United States Military between and the policies behind setbacks to the retention and entry of otherwise qualified personnel. Explanations of gender identity disorder and gender dysphoria disorder, defined as mental disorders by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) (American Psychiatric Association [APA], DSM-1, 1942; DSM-4, 2000; DSM-5, 2013). This textbook published and periodically updated by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), directly affects the guidelines for determining qualification of personnel into military service. Factual information is the only justification used for the policies put forth by the Department of Defense (DOD), Secretary of Defense (SECDEF), the Supreme Court of the United States, the office of the President of the United States and all categories of official office or position...
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... | |WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23 , 2011 | [pic] |ATTORNEY JOHN WASHINGTON | |BUL 5323 – BUSINESS LAW | Introduction Ever since its declaration in 1993 under President Bill Clinton’s administration, don’t ask, don’t tell (DADT) has been a major dispute amongst the United States citizens; especially those involved in the U.S. Military. Questions such as: “Is it even constitutional?” and “What are the pros and cons?” and “Should the policy be repealed?” have been propound. Subsequent to all of the questioning, viewed opinions and assessments, this subject generally falls into three perspectives: the permissive, the restrictive and the prohibitive. This paper...
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...pressing wish for stability and normalcy amongst both the chaos abroad and the paranoia that characterized the Red Scare’s fear-mongering anti-communist policies. Psychiatrists, while relying on information about homosexuality that would later prove to be entirely false, recommended screenings, and their subsequent use to reject and remove homosexuals from service came as a result of the moral depravity associated with the community. Gay people were coined as ‘sex psychopaths’ and deviants that could hide in plain sight and maliciously infiltrate American homes and families, breaking apart the carefully cultivated image of breadwinner men and housewife women. Paranoia...
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...Jesus Christ roamed the earth. Just in recent elections, proposition 8 was not passed because of people's beliefs, which was intended to authorize gay marriage by the state. The military, until recent years, did not allow homosexuals to join the service or if an active service member was discovered to be gay he or she would be discharged from the military. It is evident that gay marriage or homosexuality has been an ongoing battle for years between church and state versus the people. Is there a soon to be turning point in the future for gay and lesbian marriages? During Barack Obama's first election he was opposed to gay marriage. However, in an interview with ABC's Robin Roberts, Obama said "I've always been adamant that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally." Whether that has happened or not, the president has reconsidered his former position against gay marriage, which in turn may change the direction of this debate. As asked previously, where did the taboo of gay marriage or homosexuality stem from, in the old testament the first book in the Bible, Genesis 19: 1-13 speaks of homosexuality and how God destroyed the city because of the sin that was being committed. According to "Christian Bible Reference Site" (2000), "The wicked men of Sodom attempted a homosexual rape of two messengers from God who had come to visit Lot. As a result of this and other widespread wickedness, God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in a storm of fire...
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...this concept in mind the questions that scholars have often asked regarding whether or not Alexander the Great was homosexual have been in query since the idea of this modern construct has been established and it has faced its share of historical revisionism by scholars time and time again. Although Alexander the Great engaged in homoerotic behavior this was not unusual...
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