In the lead-up to DADT repeal, the Religious Right went to great lengths to portray the members of the United States armed forces as an elite fighting force which happens to be populated by people are too sissy to deal with being around openly gay people. It was super weird.
But now that repeal is about to become official [tomorrow], it looks like the military is going to be just fine, thankyew:
For some gay service members, the fear of discovery and reprisals dissipated months ago when a federal court halted all investigations and discharge proceedings under “don’t ask, don’t tell,” while military leaders prepared the armed services for its end.
Several have come out to their peers and commanders.
A few have since placed photographs of their same-sex partners on their desks and attended military barbecues and softball games with their significant others. In San Diego, about 200 active-duty personnel — both gay and heterosexual — made up the nation’s first military contingency to participate in a Gay Pride march this summer, carrying banners identifying their branches of service. An Army soldier had tears, saying she was touched by the thousands cheering them on, after hiding her identity for so long.
[…]
Air Force Capt. Diane Cox, whose gay son served in the Navy, said she got into heated debates with service members vowing not to take showers and share rooms with gays before Congress voted to repeal the law, but after the military held sensitivity trainings to explain the new rules “everybody just shut up.”
Ha. The rest of the article sadly features more “not shutting up” from, you guessed it, chaplains. They are still very worried whether or not they, who are supposed to be able to minister to any and all troops in a time of war, will still be free to get a little gay-hatin’ in on the side. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: that these chaplains are so worried about people taking away their precious right to discriminate says more about them as human beings than it does about gay troops.
