Congressman: Bush fears "platoon of lesbians"
A congressman from New York on Wednesday jokingly suggested the Bush administration may fear a "platoon of lesbians" more than terrorists in Baghdad, given the military's resistance to letting gays serve openly.
Rep. Gary Ackerman's criticism of Pentagon policy came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Ackerman, a New York City Democrat, complained to Rice that the military had fired Arabic and Farsi translators after learning the translators were gay.
"For some reason, the military seems more afraid of gay people than they are against terrorists. They're very brave with the terrorists, and if the terrorists ever got ahold of this information, they'd get a platoon of lesbians to chase us out of Baghdad," said Ackerman, prompting laughter in the hearing room.
It's hard to believe it's 2007 and gays in the military is still a controversial issue in this country. I'm one of those lesbians, who served, that Bush is worried about. I joined during the first Gulf War, when I was young, patriotic and willing to overlook the bigotry that abounds in this country. I'm proud and happy that I served my country, but now that I'm older I'm not quite as naive nor as forgiving as I used to be and frankly my attitude towards the military and the country on this subject is disgust! Some of the best militaries in the world allow gays to serve openly and it's caused no problems, so if the U.S. still doesn't want us I say, fine let the straight people go do all the dying. Why fight for a country that treats me as a second class citizen?!
Rep. Gary Ackerman's criticism of Pentagon policy came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Ackerman, a New York City Democrat, complained to Rice that the military had fired Arabic and Farsi translators after learning the translators were gay.
"For some reason, the military seems more afraid of gay people than they are against terrorists. They're very brave with the terrorists, and if the terrorists ever got ahold of this information, they'd get a platoon of lesbians to chase us out of Baghdad," said Ackerman, prompting laughter in the hearing room.
It's hard to believe it's 2007 and gays in the military is still a controversial issue in this country. I'm one of those lesbians, who served, that Bush is worried about. I joined during the first Gulf War, when I was young, patriotic and willing to overlook the bigotry that abounds in this country. I'm proud and happy that I served my country, but now that I'm older I'm not quite as naive nor as forgiving as I used to be and frankly my attitude towards the military and the country on this subject is disgust! Some of the best militaries in the world allow gays to serve openly and it's caused no problems, so if the U.S. still doesn't want us I say, fine let the straight people go do all the dying. Why fight for a country that treats me as a second class citizen?!
posted by Leo at 8:20 PM
2 Comments:
I'd completely agree with you. I served in the Army for 4 years from 1991 through 1995.
I was a linguist and an intelligence analyst and new several gay and lesbian soldiers during my years in the military. They were good soldiers with one exception and he had a drug problem which can screw up anyone gay or straight.
The military and our country needs to get past this if for no other reason than to be pragmatic about benefiting from good people and good soldiers no matter what their sexuality is.
Brett, thanks so much for the comment and the support! It means a lot coming from another former soldier.
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