Obama combats discrimination of gay and lesbian soldiers

[Dr. Slicker]

As I read in a German newspaper, President Barack Obama is going to fulfill one of his campaign-promises. In his recent state of the union address he announced to cancel the outrageous (my opinion) "Don´t ask, don´t tell"-law, which forced gay and lesbian soldiers to keep calm about their sexual orientation and to live in permanent brokenness, restraint and even fear.

Dan Choi, a member of the National Guard, decorated Iraque-veteran and West-Point-graduate, outet himself last March to support the overcoming of an inhuman practice. In May he received a letter from his superiors, which accused him to have "negatively influenced the good regime and discipline" in his draft.

Since 1993 14000 homosexual soldiers were dismissed.
Hopefully this new effort for resolving the discrimination will succeed.

What do you think? Any opinion - the adverse included - is highly appreciated!

[Anne]

It's about time something was done to address the issue. It's a shame that a lot of people believe that being gay is sick, perverse, unnatural ... or worse.

Nobody should be ashamed of their orientation, may it be gay, lesbian, bi or transgender. They're normal people just like all of us and should be treated equally.

It's a shame that a lot of people (not only Americans) believe the nonsense that being gay is sick or the result of bad influences from their environment.

It's a shame that gay marriage still is illegal in the US or other countries. I mean, love is love, no matter who your heart beats for.

Same with the army employees. I don't understand why someone should be dismissed from their job just because of their sexual orientation. I hope President Obama will succeed with his mission to end this discrimination.

[Amber]

I totally agree. I was glad to hear that he was planning to reverse "Don't ask, Don't Tell", as I think it is an unnatural hardship to have to hide who you are and who you love. Of course, he is running into the usual obstructionists who have tried to block every change he has attempted to make. Frustrates the heck out of me...I have not totally agreed with everything he has tried to do (largely because, quite frankly, I don't understand it all),but I do believe that he is trying to make positive changes in areas where change desperately needs to be made. And, I do feel that this "Don't ask, don't Tell" needs to be changed. Time for everyone to realize that not everyone is alike, and personal differences in sexual preference do not make people "sick" or "weird", or whatever negative label may be put on them. Different strokes for different folks, ya' know?

[Simona]

I couldn't agree more. I think I have made it clear several times now, how much I dislike my country's current PM and his gang. This is one of the reasons why: the left wing has been presenting laws against discrimination and in favour of rights for all kinds of couples (not only gay but not married people who wish to live together, that unbelievenly in Italy have no rights at all, so that if your mate is in hospital you have the right to go and see him/her only if the family agrees!) but the Vatican has an enormous influence on our politics, who are not able to say no to the Pope and his powerful hierarchy. Not to mention the fact that Mr Berlusconi has his own dirty business to fix so he doesn't care about any other thing.

Thus, this is a country where one of my best friends was fired for being gay and noone had nothing to say about it, where gay people can be beaten to death in the night and someone would say "Oh, they shouldn't hold their hands so openly in the street!".
I don't know if a couple of laws will be able to change our bigoted and narrow-minded people's mind but that could be a good start!
And, since we are in 2010 I wish Italian press could stop talking about gay, bi and transgender as as feaks from a circus! We are all human beings for God's sake! That would be very helpful!

[Lizzie]

I agree, in my opinion it's about time (used as the expression; I actually mean it's long overdue!). In my own country the ban on soldiers being openly gay was only lifted in 2000, which I find quite shocking actually.

I've always thought that, provided all soldiers (of whatever sexual orientation) don't behave inappropriately whilst on duty, what difference does it make to their work? We have (in many countries) straight men and women serving together too after all!

If a person would make a good soldier, let them become a soldier.

[Geertrui]

I agree with you all! That's a good decision he made, it was about time indeed!

Originally Posted by Lizzie

If a person would make a good soldier, let them become a soldier.

Absolutely! The sex orientation should not have an effect on their profession.

I think I may be happy to live in this country where gay and lesbian people can marry and adopt children. I'm a bit worried though, because of our new archbishop who's very conservative. He dared to compare homosexuality with anorexia !

[Anne]

Originally Posted by Geertrui

I'm a bit worried though, because of our new archbishop who's very conservative. He dared to compare homosexuality with anorexia !

Wow, he's not only conservative, he's also a total moron.

[Simona]

Originally Posted by Geertrui

He dared to compare homosexuality with anorexia !

What an eating disorder has to do with sexual orientation? This is pure nonsense and denotes his ignorance on both subjects!

[Geertrui]

Yes, I was quite shocked when I read that! Fortunately, a lot of associations critizes him and I have the impression that the public opinion isn't in his advantage as well.

[cooperkids]

I guess I don't see why it matters what sexual orientation you are as long as you can get the job done.

[Sylvie]

Originally Posted by cooperkids

I don't see why it matters what sexual orientation you are as long as you can get the job done.

AS LONG AS YOU CAN GET THE JOB DONE.

Oh dear... It sounds so common sense, so obvious! but... in my own country France, there's a huge discrepancy between the existing laws and the actual facts.

Facts:
When there's two persons applying for a job, any kind of job, and these two persons have identical professional abilities, the one chosen amongst the two shall always be:

If two women are involved:
- the younger, not the older
- the thinner, not the fatter
- the most physically attractive of the two
etc, etc.

If gender is not a matter, the person chosen will always be:
- the white person instead of the colored one
- the one whose home address is in the richest area (there's a huge discrimination here for people who're coming from poor, suburbian, ghetto-ized zones, it goes so far that some people who live there but who nevertheless have many diplomas have to put a fake address on their CV)
etc, etc.

Laws:
Theoretically, such discriminations are strictly forbidden in my country, there have been several voted laws against that ; but in the facts... 90% of big companies (but also temp job agencies!!!) are following these unwritten scandalous rules. The biggest problem for "rejected candidates" is it's almost always impossible to go to court and bring the evidence of them being a victim of such discriminations, because these companies have also learnt how to "trick" the laws.

Last but not least: for several decades, my country France has been self-proclaiming itself as "The Country of Human Rights". such hypocrisy makes me want to cough, spit, throw up

[Dr. Slicker]

Originally Posted by Geertrui

I think I may be happy to live in this country where gay and lesbian people can marry and adopt children.

It´s great to see, that gay and lesbian couples gain more and more equal rights!

Originally Posted by cooperkids

I guess I don't see why it matters what sexual orientation you are as long as you can get the job done.

That´s an important point and I totally agree.

I must confess, that I´m under several influcences right now. But that´s ok for me - we saw "Milk" (by Sean Penn) this evening, and this is an outstanding touching movie about a Californian gay politician in the late seventies, who was murdered altogether with the mayor of San Francisco.

And I was shocked to read a statement of an American general (could have been a general of other countries too, I suspect) who stated some utter nonsense about the massacre of Srebrenica in 1995, where up to 8000 Bosnic people were victims of the genocide caused by the bosnic-serbian troops.
This massacre was the most terrible one since the second World War and this general dared to say, that the gay soldiers of the Dutch UN-troops, which were poorly armed and had no order to fight, were responsible of this tragedy because of their bad fighting spirit.
The fight for the downfall of discrimination will last a long time.

Btw.: the German soccer-league suffers from homophobia too. Almost all gay professional soccer-players are seemingly afraid to out themselves, cause it´d be "incompatible" with the public expectations. Time for a change too!

[Geertrui]

There is still a long way to go. The adoption is legalized here but the statistics say that only a small percentage of children are allocated to gay people.

Originally Posted by Dr. Slicker

This massacre was the most terrible one since the second World War and this general dared to say, that the gay soldiers of the Dutch UN-troops, which were poorly armed and had no order to fight, were responsible of this tragedy because of their bad fighting spirit.

I was shocked as well when I heard this. I couldn't believe my ears and the way he said that . That was bad done.

Originally Posted by ''Dr. Slicker

The fight for the downfall of discrimination will last a long time.

I'm afraid so.