Majority approves of gays in the military

February 2, 2007

I think it’s safe to say that opponents of gays serving in the military are officially out of arguments.

A new poll from Harris Interactive found that 55% of Americans think gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military. By comparison, 19% of the 2,337 Americans polled said gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve “only if they keep their sexual orientation a secret,” and 18% said they should “not be allowed to serve in the military at all.”

This dovetails nicely with a Zogby poll of U.S. troops released about a month ago.

A new poll reveals that 73% of military members say they are comfortable around lesbians and gays. And 23% say they know an active duty soldier in their unit who is lesbian or gay…. More than half — 55% — of the troops who know a gay peer said the presence of gays or lesbians in their unit is well known by others. […]

“Those who defend the law have argued that openly gay personnel harm military readiness. This research highlights the absurdity of such a hypothesis,” said C. Dixon Osburn, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

A majority of American civilians are ready to scrap “don’t ask, don’t tell”; a majority of American troops are fine with serving alongside gay servicemembers. Remind me, what arguments are left on the other side?

uhhh…didn’t the somewhat recent interview on the Colbert Report make this clear? they homophobic right would rather die in a terrorist attack (and let thousands of other American’s die) than be seen naked in a shower by a gay or lesbian.

Of course, I’m not sure what the argument for that is…

  • It’s amazing to me that, with data such as these, ExxonMobil just voted to rescind its non-discrimination policy regarding employment of gays. This came just as the megacorporation posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company – $39.5 billion, over over 2005’s $36.13 billion. Over 80% of Fortune 500 companies now have non-discrimination policies in place. ExxonMobil is retrograde, as are the remaining 20%. They should be taxed on their obscene profits and their anti-gay policies should be roundly condemned.

    Until there’s a Federal prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, all other efforts are temporary at best and probably futile so long as the wackos have any voice at all, let alone the dominant one.

  • My cynicism is almost completely confirmed. At the time, I thought DADT would last until we got into a war, when the right would bitterly complain that gays did not have to serve, while everyone else did. I suspect if we had the draft, we’d be hearing a lot of that now.

  • Well, there’s the gay = heathen argument. There’s the “God Hates Fags” argument. And of course there’s the I’m-insecure-about-my-own-sexuality-so-I’m-going-to-attack-gay-men-and-their-supporters argument.

    Homophobia by definition is neurotic so it’s not going to respond positively to the “why can’t we all just get along” stimulus.

  • With righties, it’s almost a given now that the most publicly homophobic are one phone call away from being outed by their most recently-visited male prostitute (Haggard, etc.).

    But then, it’s as easy to call them the American Hypocrisy Movement as it is The American Right.

  • Q: If you take a diverse-women-homo’s army against a heterosexual-male -homogeny army, who would stand to win?

  • It’s past due (speaking as a lesbian), but what worries me about it is the kind of, uh, “people” the military has been recruiting lately to fill the holes – the white supremicists, the gang bangers, the felons…not to mention an Air Force full of religious nut jobs.

    Perhaps the Navy is safe.

  • JC, clearly you’ve never heard of the Theban Sacred Band, who could kick the living crap out of everyone they came across until Phillip of Macedon.

    In any case, a lesbian with a Barrett is just as lethal as a hetero guy with a Barrett. I’d be glad to demonstrate.

  • Remind me, what arguments are left on the other side?

    I think all they’re left with is “mansechs is icky.”

    If you take a diverse-women-homo’s army against a heterosexual-male -homogeny army, who would stand to win?

    Can I get a translation? Anyone … ?

  • Yeah, I think it means a proxy fight between a “leftist/liberal” army and a “man’s man” army. I’ll tell you which side wins: the side with the most brains.

    Which side is that, I wonder?

  • The question is:
    Remind me, what arguments are left on the other side?

    The answer is:
    Waaah! We won’t have anyone we can publicly villify! Waaah [sob]!

    That’s about it really.

    Most of the coalition members in Iraq and Afghanistan don’t discriminate. This includes the US’s two staunchest supporters: England & Austrailia. US soldiers have likely already fought beside openly gay soldiers and what do you know? No one got cooties or ran away screaming whatever the fuck is supposed to happen that was exactly like whatever the fuck was supposed to happen when they racially integrated army units so why are we having this discussion again?
    Ahem. Sorry. Tedious arseholes annoy me.
    And of course, the countries that don’t allow gays and lesbians to serve include the ones our clueless leader often calls evil. Iraq (when it had an army), Iran, No. Ko, Syria. Hmmm…

  • Yeah, now that military service has gotten real dangerous, let teh gay serve, not my kids! 🙂

  • I was just thinking about my few years in the service. I saw more gay type things in there than in civilian life believe me. In basic a guy jumped in bed with another guy who was sleeping. In AIT, which is second training session, a guy showed me a doctor’s letter saying he was gay. In regular duty there was a guy with pink dyed hair who seemed to be saying something. There were a couple of officers who floated, and I mean floated, down the hall. There was a guy told me another soldier told him to give him a blow job. Unless it has totally changed, the people in there have a live and let live philosophy. much looser than civilian life. If you havent been in army or some other branch you wouldnt know all the stuff that goes on.

  • I was kicked out the navy for being a lesbian they take it like a national crime they took me and other people to privatwe rooms and asked plenty of questions reguarding us and if we did anything in our bunks 9 of us got kicked out and I am well above the physical requirements rotc 4 years served only to be kicked out 4 that have an re 4 and can’t join any branch that was my #1 dream and its gone… now im working in a factory dreaming of a day when I can have my life long dream..

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