Reply #11: It is an opportunity to look at the military culture and environment then maybe/hopefully enact [View All]

policy changes to counter the bigotry in both the people coming in and already there that might have or instill ideas that gay or lesbian people are less than heterosexuals. I also look at it, perhaps mistakenly, as a chance for the military to make changes about the culture that might help reduce the rate of sexual assault on females. IF they can find a way to educate and train troops to accept people that they might otherwise not, perhaps they can also build a better mentality that everyone in the military is a family member and sexual assault or physical assault on them is reprehensible.

The aspect of effectiveness/readiness etc are mostly BS, other countries that allow openly gay/lesbian servicemen/women and don't have issues with it. To my mind the readiness/effectiveness cohesion crap is a tool from those against ending the repeal trying to scare people into believing that it would make our forces unable to fight, recruit, retain or work effectively anymore. I don't doubt that some closed minded and hateful people will choose not to join knowing that gay and lesbians no longer have to keep to the shadows, or that some people will cause problems about an openly gay/lesbian member but that is that person's problem, the military's is to make sure they don't let them cause problems or get away with hateful behavior. Some consideration should be used to see if there are ways to lessen any problems that might come up from openly gay/lesbian servicemen and women, the problems in my mind are most likely on the side of those who can't deal with it, but I may be wrong so it doesn't hurt to try and see if there might be issues that were not considered by the people in charge.

As I said perhaps I am mistaken in my hopes for the report, even if it does come up with some issues it then falls on the military to implement those recommendations/changes and they can easily screw that up, only time will tell.