Soldier gets booed, politicians get applause

Today, I would like to share my perspective on a recurring source of frustration in my life: the GOP Presidential debate. So there I was, reading a news report about the most recent debate and wouldn't you know...angst. According to the Huffington Post, along with several other sources, a gay Soldier was booed by members of the audience after asking whether any of the candidates would counter the repeal of the military's DADT policy if elected into office. The candidates response: silence. That's right, no one condemned the explicit lack of support for this person who volunteered to serve his country. But it didn't stop there.

 In case you didn't catch all of that, the exchange went something like this [taken from the Huffington Post article]:

SANTORUM: I would say any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military. The fact they are making a point to include it as a provision within the military that we are going to recognize a group of people and give them a special privilege to, and removing don't ask don’t tell. I think tries to inject social policy into the military. And the military's job is to do one thing: to defend our country...

KELLY: What would you with soldiers like Steven Hill?

SANTORUM: What we are doing is playing social experimentation with our military right now. That’s tragic. I would just say that going forward we would reinstitute that policy if Rick Santorum was president. That policy would be re-instituted as far as people in, I would not throw them out because that would be unfair to them because of the policy of this administration. But we would move forward in conformity with what was happening in the past. Which was- sex is not an issue. It should not be an issue. Leave it alone. Keep it to yourself whether you are heterosexual or homosexual.

Really? May I ask a question? What special 'privilege' is it exactly that LGBT Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines have been given? Maybe it's the privilege of serving their country? Hmm...no. That can't be it, because up until 2 days ago they weren't allowed to let anyone know they were gay. Then maybe it's the privilege of telling everyone in their unit that they are gay. Yes, that surely must be it! I know I certainly have been overwhelmed by all of the LGBT Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines running rampant across the military telling all sorts of people about their sexual orientation (sarcasm noted). So that's not happening either? You mean that we're still just carrying on with the same ole status quo of heterosexual men in the military telling one another about their sexual orientation? Not sure about that one either? What would you call it when men get together and talk explicitly about their last (real or fantasized) sexual encounter? Ah yes! Women do it too. Sure, though not as openly as men (because they have to be concerned that delicate balance between the virgin and slut perception). It doesn't really matter though, because those conversations are heterosexual too! Oh, but watch out! Because Rick Santorum feels that "any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military". If he does get elected, he'll have to let me know how that one works out for him. That is however, exactly the type of statement that is typically made by the dominant group.


And as if that weren't enough, he continued by saying "What we are doing [by repealing the DADT policy] is playing social experimentation with our military right now. That’s tragic." Tragic? Would Rick Santorum have also opposed the desegregation of our military in 1948? Was that also 'social engineering'? To a certain degree, yes. Yes it was, and necessary to boot. More than one and a half decades before the implementation of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, the military was blazing a path. Setting an example for the rest of the nation.


What would happen to Soldiers like Steven Hill?


Rick Santorum stated that he "Would not throw them out because that would be unfair..." It reads well, to a degree. But listen to how he said it. Watch his body language, then ask yourself what he meant.


Rick Santorum, what I hear you saying is that you are conscious of the values held by many of those who would support you and you are willing to let a United States service member be publicly disrespected in order to garner that support. You believe that conformity is the way ahead and that if everyone would just pretend to be like you, life would be fine.

Well, that sounds a lot like the first three hundred or so years of this country's history, and in my opinion, we've come further in the past fifty. So, I don't plan on taking any steps backward any time soon and I hope you don't either.