NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/ba/politics/7924

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-24 | 3.2 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!sgiblab!daver!dlb!zygot!john
From: [e-mail] (John Higdon)
Newsgroups: ba.politics
Subject: Re: Gays, the military and "privacy"
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 24 Dec 92 00:36:13 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Organization: Green Hills and Cows
Lines: 57

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Phil Ronzone) writes:

>So therefore, you disapprove of seperate but equal facilities (bunk rooms,
>showers and such) for women. They just be racist artifacts.

Why are we so hung up on showering and sleeping quarters? There are,
after all, many other situations that need attention.

Consider a situation that is all to common:

I know someone who was in the Air Force, stationed at the "Blue Cube"
for years. He lived off-base in an apartment. He had a security
clearance. He was highly regarded by his co-workers and superiors as a
competent, dependable, and trustworthy non-comm officer. A very few of
his fellow servicemen knew of his homosexuality, but of course it made
no difference to them, one way or the other since the activities and
duties performed in the "cube" have nothing to do with sex.

Someone outside the Air Force apparently had some beef with this person
and decided to destroy his career. It was not hard to do. One phone
call to an officer at the base in Sunnyvale and the witch hunt began.
The long and the short of it was that this person was discharged
from the Air Force after eighteen years of honorable service. And even
though it was an "honorable discharge", his career was ended before the
twenty-year mark.

Now perhaps someone can explain why the military should be allowed to
keep such practices in place.

>You are so right -- it must be SO humilating for all those women in the
>Armed Force to not be able to shower, shit, and sleep (in the same bunk room)
>with the men. It must be agonizing for them.

You know, the odds are that you (everyone reading this) have shared a
public restroom with a gay person. Did you survive the experience?
Perhaps we can hear some war stories about the ordeal. Can I expect to
see a sign bearing the words, "Straight Men" on the door of the Fry's
men's room in the forseeable future?

I can guarantee you shared a high school locker room with gay people.
Did you survive? Did it "turn you gay"? Did it corrupt your morals? Did
you even know who they were? How did you know?

Men and women are built differently. They look different, even with
clothes on. I had always assumed that this was the rationalization for
separate toilet and dressing facilities, not some worry about mental
processes concerning attraction or lust. Nor had it occurred to me that
the reason for separate facilities was to keep men and women from
uncontrollably screwing each other.

Do men feel uncomfortable if they have to shower, shit, and sleep (in
the same bunk room) with women? Maybe. Who cares? A gay man is not a
woman. He is as much a man as any other, bigoted claptrap
notwithstanding.
--
 John Higdon  |   P. O. Box 7648   |   [phone]     |       FAX:
 [e-mail] | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | [phone]