There was a moment this week that many thought they would never see. Brig. Gen. Randy S. Taylor rose to address a major conference and introducing his spouse. However in this case his spouse was his husband Lucas who was sitting in the same row with Defense Secretary Ashton Carter Army Secretary John McHugh and other senior officials. Taylor has served 27 years through the ban on gays, the “don’t ask don’t tell policy,” and now the new policy of openness. He and Lucas have had an 18-year relationship.
Taylor discussed the sacrifices that Lucas made for his career and how they both bet everything on the Army. The bet paid off.
This week also saw the adoption of a new policy barring discrimination against members of the U.S. military based on their sexual orientation. Sexual orientation now joins discrimination based on race, gender and other protected categories.
The event itself is notable as the Pentagon’s 4th Gay Pride celebration that featured a gay Marine officer, a gay Army sergeant who is a criminal investigator, a lesbian chaplain and a transgender, Amanda Simpson, who is executive director of the Army’s Office of Energy Initiatives.
Carter set the perfect tone and told the crowd that “We need to be a meritocracy.” Indeed, our military will only stay competitive if we take the best and brightest from our ranks. Many gay and lesbian citizens have answered that call throughout history and they have now achieved true equal status with their peers in service.
Source: Washington Times
“sissified thinks”
Lol, ignorance at its finest. Did you serve? If not, maybe that makes you the sissified twink.
@WadeW
I suspect that one is much more likely to read a story here about unfair imprisonment, than one is to read about gay HIV conversion sex parties over at Pansies For Plato. 🙂
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
THANKYOU John! That is exactly what my daughter, an FMF Corpsman has said regarding gays in the military.
bam bam
I’ve got a solution for all your concerns – AND it’s from the Old Testament – the text that you hold so close to your heart.
Well, let’s do it like they do in the Old Testament.
Aren’t there a couple of chapters where God directs that EVERY SINGLE LIVING BEING (I believe that includes animals) should be slaughtered?
Yea, God! Old Testament rules!
That should end all your concerns about HIV.
Bam Bam,
Your sentiments are just simply innacurrate. I was in the Marine Corps for 5 years and spent about half of that time in Iraq. I served with a couple of gay marines and none of the junior enlisted marines cared. Just like every other Marine, the only thing we cared about was whether or not you could perform your job. Their sexual orientation had no effect on unit cohesion.
@ 12:57
Still as crabby as ever.
https://www.hrc.army.mil/staff/human%20immunodeficiency%20virus%20hiv#q6
“If I am HIV infected is my career over?
No. You may choose several career options. First, the primary concern is to ensure you are under the care of a physician. The amount of care you are entitled to is determined by your current status. If you are an IRR, IMA, or TPU soldier, this care is at your own expense, not the government’s. There are several exclusions to this guidance. In order to remain a TPU Soldier or in an IMA position, you must provide some addtional documentation to finalize your PHA review. This new process replaces the old reuirement for a annual Fit-For-Duty medical evaluation. If you are found Fit-For-Duty, you must be assigned to a non-deployable position (if available), and cannot perform active duty for more than 29 days.”
Nothing like getting your sex education from a person who writes terrible ‘poems’ that seem to be created in the mind of a ten year old boy who giggles about ‘weenies’ and feces.
When we harbor the little child within us, we keep ourselves young. Those that let the little child wither and die, die themselves.
I don’t know BamBam, I’ll ask my daughter when she gets home from the base tonight.
I. Annie
What happens when one is found to be carrying a blood born pathogen? Is that cause for dismissal? If so, for which diseases? Apparently, reading is not fundamental to some on this site. Despite repeated remarks, in which I have more than explained the unique character of the military and the special rules accompanying it, some very slow people continue to interpret my statements and concerns as applying to all jobs, across the board. Notice, not one retort which actually addresses the issues raised. No. That would be beyond their pay grade. From the comfort of their homes, sitting in their air conditioned dens and immune to their own vast ignorance, they believe that they have all the true answers with regard to our military and its procedures. This is better than re-runs of Seinfeld. Priceless.
Wade, you think they’re mad now? Wait until the SC announces it’s same sex marriage decision later this month. It will be interesting to see the meltdown.
@bfm
The difference now is that the military is letting all the sissified twinks in. Before, you pretty much had just the macho gays who could pass as straight. Bottoms get HIV a lot more than tops. Time will tell.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
“The difference now is that the military is letting all the sissified twinks in. ”
What do you call a “sissified twink” with an M4 and 10 thirty round magazines?
Sir or possibly Mam – well, that is a start.
What do you call a “sissified twink” who spends his working days training to blow things up and kill people?
Army infantry, Marine or perhaps Special Forces.
Read issac at 12:22.
Now read bam bam at 12:42
Anyone notice the difference in tone?
Which one sounds angry?
@Isaac
A lot of what you said is true, but ignorance is not how HIV is spread in this country. It is spread by sodomy and promiscuity. If ignorance were the medium of transmission, then every retarded person and a large percentage of Democrats would be HIV positive. Plus, there are many gay men who intentionally get and give the disease. They know exactly what they are doing. Here is a fascinating, non-homophobic documentary that I promise you will be worth the hour you invest in it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rf85eRNze0
Another issue is the rate of heterosexual transmission. The last stats that I looked at (2013???) showed about 30,000 men who had sex with men (MSM) becoming HIV positive, and about 1,300 heterosexual white women. But, lets think about how this is reported. A guy gets HIV from another guy, and it is recorded as MSM transmission. Sooo, Bob gets it from Bruce, let’s say. Then Bob has sex with Mary, and Mary gets infected.
The stats will show that Mary is a heterosexual woman and therefore she goes into the heterosexual white women category. BUT, she got it from a bi-sexual male. That fact is nowhere accounted for in the stats. To the casual reader Mary simply got HIV from undifferentiated heterosexual activity. Now some straight women will get the disease from dirty needles. Others may get it from a heterosexual immigrant from Africa. But there is still what I suspect is a large unaccounted for component that comes to the Marys out there via the MSM route.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Bam Bam
Laughter is the best medicine. You’re welcome.
BamBam, I can say based on what my daughter has told me, precious few soldiers, sailors, or Marines will recoil if a gay fellow military member is injured on the battlefield. If they would, they would be drummed out of the service post haste. Again they are tested BEFORE deployment.
issac
I admire your optimism – especially in the face of what we read here every day. Then there are the subjects that don’t get touched…
How about 40 years in solitary?
“My GUESS is that you will start to see HIV clusters develop on certain bases, because gay guys screw like bunny rabbits on Viagra. The cluster effect is what drove and continues to drive a lot of the epidemic in the U.S.”
The problem with that model is that we have every reason to believe that LGBT community was already in the military – not recently, not for decades but since the very beginning. The only difference is that now they are public about their presence.
If you model conformed to reality we would expect the clusters to already be present – not start appearing at some time in the future.
Sure, we ought to be concerned about unprotected sex and HIV. But this announcement has not changed anything regarding HIV. The announcement simply confirms the reality of most military units since society started organizing men to fight.
The question is not whether we will allow gay men and women in the military. The question is whether we recognize their contribution.
isaac
Your denunciation of opinions, based upon your warped notion of ignorance or stupidity, is one of the best examples of the pot calling the kettle black. Hysterical. We should all sit at your feet to soak up your, self-proclaimed, corner of the market on knowledge and wisdom. Thanks. I really needed the laugh.
https://www.hrc.army.mil/staff/human%20immunodeficiency%20virus%20hiv#q1
BamBam, upon entry and then every two years, unless deployed. Then tests are again done before deployment.