by Mrs Haruo » Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:12 pm
This is a real hot button issue with me, because I have BEEN in the military. 30 some years ago I joined the Navy right out of high school. I was so innocent I wasn't sure what a homosexual was, other than letters my brother had written home from his tour of duty on a submarine where when they stopped in Pearl Harbor and went to a bar where men dresses up like women and you couldn't tell the real women from the fake ones. I and several of my classmates from the U.S. Navy School of Photography were invited to a service at some big church in town and asked to come in uniform. After a soul stirring flag waving service, I was down in the rest room in the stall and heard a couple of "church pillars" in decent hats and sensible shoes come in and one told the other that "The only girls who go into the Navy are lesbians or nymphomaniacs" Uh, thanks a lot lady. Really turned me off to going to church if I was going to be treated like %#$& every time I appeared in uniform. I heard that all the time. I was neither, but my roommate had been thrown out of boot camp her first time through for putting her arm around another girl when she had a letter with tragic news from home, and a homophobic officer came around the corner and saw them. Lena fought to stay in, she was heterosexual, but just showing sisterly affection toward another woman recruit could get you tossed if the wrong person caught you.
My chief said it best, "If a couple of you girls move off base and share an apartment, you are tagged as lesbians, if you share a place with a guy, no matter how platonic the relationship, you are a slut who is shacking up." My son is on active duty right now. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is a bunch of nonsense. Just keep your personal life to yourself and be professional in the work place.
Don't despair if your job and your rewards are few, remember that the mighty oak was once a nut like you!