Panetta salutes gays in military

[æonpax]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Friday thanked gay and lesbian military members for their service, as the Pentagon prepares to mark June as gay pride month with an official salute.
In a remarkable sign of a cultural change in the U.S. military, Panetta said that with the repeal last year of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law that prohibited gays from serving openly in the military, gays and lesbians can now be proud to be in uniform. - http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hwM3fERde8Ik6esNl4ZuKsZk6HvA?docId=d7ef303bd 47d441dae4d4340098a2cf9



This is quite a switch from what the US Military used to be to them openly thanking the homosexual community who proudly serve our country.

Now, a quibble;

Panetta specifically mentioned "gays and lesbians" but not bisexuals and transgendered. Should he have?

[Long Duck Dong]

interesting question.....

if he mentions them, he puts them in the same class as gay and lesbian people and that separates them from the rest of the military personnel that have served, merely on the grounds of sexuality.....

if he doesn't, they become part of the military that are thanked as nameless, faceless people that have served in the military, equal with everybody else, regardless of sexuality....

if he mentions them, he makes the bisexual people *part of the gay and lesbian group * during gay pride month, not bi pride month...

if he doesn't mention them, he will be accused of practicing bi erasure and bi invisibility.....

hes dammed if he does, hes dammed if he doesn't

personally I do not give thanks to gay and lesbian people for their military service cos they are gay and lesbian, I give thanks to all that have served regardless of sexuality, race, religion and gender.....cos they are all equal and worthy of acknowledgement in my eyes.. their sexuality is just a aspect of who they are, not the sum total

btw, are heterosexuals going to be acknowledged or ignored like they are 95% of the time.... cos they are equal to LGBT service people and therefore worthy of mention by sexuality as well...... and no I am not being sarcastic... I am questioning why the heterosexuals are not acknowledged with the same respect as other sexualities.... surely equal treatment applies equally to all

[darkeyes]

interesting question.....


btw, are heterosexuals going to be acknowledged or ignored like they are 95% of the time.... cos they are equal to LGBT service people and therefore worthy of mention by sexuality as well...... and no I am not being sarcastic... I am questioning why the heterosexuals are not acknowledged with the same respect as other sexualities.... surely equal treatment applies equally to all
In principle I would agree with you, Duckie... because sexuality shouldn't matter whatever the walk of life anyone has as a career.. until recently in the US and not so many years ago in the UK and other countries, it was assumed that all military personnel were heterosexual.. and not being, upon discovery meant dismissal pdq.. and sometimes worse...

So I understand why it is felt that gay and lesbian people are picked out and given praise... because in the US in particular, serving and being openly not heterosexual is so new, with much prejudice and opposition remaining, and with the election of a new President, and Congressional elections soon to be held, it is more than conceivable that DADT will be reinstated or worse.. that there is on the face of it bi-erasure here is true, but that is because bisexuality is lumped in with homosexuality by politicians, the media, and also in the minds of the population at large as we all know... that it shouldn't be I agree, and we have discussed and argued the issue time and again in this forum.. and while there are those of us (contrary to the beliefs of some) who are not bisexual who argue for bisexuals and bisexuality in it's own right to be recognised and accepted in the wider world.. until bisexuals themselves feel confident enough and strong enough to do so for themselves, things won't change too much.. many are and many do.. but, in the world at large, as yet simply not enough...

..and forgive me my ignorance here, Joan, but are there any serving transgendered people in the US military? I know of none in the British, but that doesn't mean there aren't any, and there is no proscription of serving and being transgendered....

[Long Duck Dong]

true fran, but the trouble for me is that I served, and I see a different side of things... IE bullets do not discriminate, people do.... and while I do understand that it has been hard for gays and lesbians and some bisexuals with DADT..... we run the risk of *promoting * the effort of people by way of sexuality, over the effort of other people....

I served with LGBT in the NZ forces and one thing they hated, was being singled out for praise cos of their sexuality, cos in their eyes, they were just one of the team, one of the unit and singling them out by way of sexuality, did cause friction within the forces with some people, cos it got out of hand and there were a few covered up issues within the NZ armed forces.....

think back to the thread about the two ladies kissing when they got off the boat and the remarks about how it would have sent more of a message if it was two guys kissing....and how that is a example of how achievement can be devalued using sexuality .... and how many times bisexuals may have been the first to kiss when they got off the boat and it was just another couple kissing, cos it was not two guys or two females...

recently the chch student army gained international acknowledgement, they were a collection of students that joined forces after the chch earthquakes, to help support and participate in the clean up effort, and get chch back up and running again, and how it was a fantastic effort by the students and a invaluable community spirit and currently the student army have become more of a political and community force to be reckoned with cos of the positive impact they had on the people of chch........but why did the student army get acknowledged internationally ??? cos their leader / founder sam johnson is gay, not cos of what he and the student army achieved.... and its something that pissed sam right off, cos in his words, his sexuality had nothing to do with what the student army achieved....

here is the link... and maybe you will see why its pissed sam off so much
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-peron/sam-johnson-christchurch-new-zealand_b_1576484.html

[justcurious4me]

Okay... This is a VERY interesting topic... I had not seen this article until I saw this thread... Thank you for posting this!!! When I was at my last assignment, I headed up the training for the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal" for our unit. In my humble opinion, I think it's a great thing that this has happened... There are times that we have to look back on the struggles that minority groups (I hate to look at us that way, but) endure trying to make life equal for all of us to remind us of their accomplishments and to encourage others to stand up for what they believe is right. I am very glad that he did this and I know quite a few people, in the military along side of me, that would feel the same way. It's a good thing politically too for the LGBT movement as well. Because this will further solidify that the DADT Repeal will stay in place.


As for the point of mentioning Bisexuals within his comments... I also think that, yes, he should have mentioned us in his comments. Why? Well because it's kinda misleading to the general populace that this movement is not over with totally. Although the DADT Repeal has gone through, the Transgender portion of our community has NOT been included in that repeal. From what I have read, the reason that they were not included in the repeal, from what I've been told, was due to the cost with the medical procedures involved. I don't necessarily agree with this, but baby steps... That's what my supervisor says all the time... Baby steps and go slow, that's how you beat that resilience to change.

Just my two cents worth!!! :)

[ExSailor]

Yes he should have mentioned at least bisexuals. Trans people still can't serve openly in the military even though DADT was abolished. Not mentioning bisexuals yet mentioning "gays and lesbians", is biphobia and bisexual erasure.

[æonpax]

....personally I do not give thanks to gay and lesbian people for their military service cos they are gay and lesbian, I give thanks to all that have served regardless of sexuality, race, religion and gender.....cos they are all equal and worthy of acknowledgement in my eyes.. their sexuality is just a aspect of who they are, not the sum total....

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True, that....

[æonpax]

....and forgive me my ignorance here, Joan, but are there any serving transgendered people in the US military? I know of none in the British, but that doesn't mean there aren't any, and there is no proscription of serving and being transgendered....
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I don't know. You are asking the wrong person.