From: jnomina@andy.bgsu.edu (A.P.K.)
Subject: Re: Gays in the Military..what nobody is talking about:
Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh.
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 21:08:11 GMT

 
Everyone wants to talk about gays in the military lately,
and following the title to this thread "What No One Is
Talking About," perhaps there are some issues which need
to be brought to light that no one is REALLY talking about.
 
While some might disqualify me as a 'voice of reason' on
the discussion, especially once they hear what I'm about
to say, I think that there are some things which need to
be considered nonetheless.
 
I was in the military for 8 years.  I know that there are
homosexuals in the military at this time.  And I imagine
that many of them are quite decent people overall.  Most
of them aren't flamers, and they're not blatent about
what they are, it's a personal thing.  In most of these
cases, there's nothing wrong, that I can see, with them
being in the military.  However, due to the social structure
of the military, there IS a serious problem, and it has
little to do with showering facilities, sleeping assignments,
and a whole bunch of other stuff, most of which is all that's
been discussed so far.
 
The problem starts in the units.  Most of the all-male units
experience this problem from time to time, and it's why
many American social settings don't allow for full
co-habitational facilities.  I'll first site some facts
about the U.S. to back further statements.  European
cultures, especially the Netherlands, don't have serious
problems of a sexual nature, even though they're probably
the most "liberally" sexual societies around (of Western
culture.)  To back this, look at teen pregnancies and
rape statistics.  Why does the Netherlands, probably THE
most sexually liberal society, have the highest average
age of virginity?  Why is rape such a low crime statistic?
And why are there fewer teen pregnancies there than here?
I don't want to get too far away from the point here, but
it's quite obvious that the U.S. is one of the most
sexually repressed of Western civilizations, and our
social and crime problems are rather strong indicators
to point this out.  (Concerning teen pregnancy, the last
I'd read, there are no more teen pregnancies today, by
population percentile than there were 50 years ago, it's
just that today more people are screaming about it in an
effort to keep there 'children' as children at a later
and later age.  That's perhaps why there are so many
college aged 'children' around today...  Teach your
kids personal responsibility and let them grow up!)
 
Okay, now we have a sexually repressed society, and the
problems that go with it, isn't that neat?  No, but...
 
Now we're going to jump to the military as a social
setting.  Males and females have seperate facilities.
Hey, they HAVE to, for obvious reasons as can be infered
from the above (and I'll make NO reference to the military
double standards enjoyed by most females other to infer
that double standards DO exist, and if you feel like
flaming me on that point, be prepared for retaliation,
I'm already prepared for THAT war.)  We have seperate
male and female facilities to avoid such social problems
as rape and other forms of sexual harassment.
 
But allowing combined homo and hetero living facilities
(within gender boundaries) DOES still allow for such crimes
as rape and the like to occur, doesn't it?  Yes.  In fact,
not only is the potential there, it does happen, considerably
more frequently that most people would probably like to know
about, hear about, or admit.  While I can't speak for
both sides of the house, I can speak for the male side
of the house.  And while I'm speaking about it, I'm not
generalizing or categorizing ALL homosexuals as rapists.
But it does occur.
 
What are the 'statistics'?  I don't know.  I can site
personally observed examples, though.  In the more than
seven years I was in my one duty station in Europe, our
tank battalion had 5 instances of just such a problem as
rape (to include the liberal definition of acquaintence
rape.)  Of the 5 cases in 7+ years, three were open and
shut cases of someone taking advantage of another after
the victim had become intoxication and passed out (hence,
the perpetrator got caught on top and in progress.)  One
case was a case of blatent violence.  And the last case
mostly fit the description of acquaintence rape, getting
the victim drunk and alone, and the perpetrator later
admitted that the victim wasn't at fault, it had been
planned.  And this only covered one battalion in our
brigade.  Two other battalions had considerably MORE
cases in the 7+ years I was there.  And in ALL of these
cases, the incidents took place IN THE BARRACKS.  It's
possible that other incidents happened, but were never
found out.  These cases all were discovered 'in progress'
because the Charge of Quarters heard something going on
and investigated or roommates came in.
 
Why does it occur?  That's a VERY good question.  Perhaps
it has something to do with being alone in a place away
from home, without friendships that have developed over
the years.  Perhaps, in part, it has to do with sexual
frustration and a lack of a vent for such frustration.
I'm no psychologist, and there are a lot of intricacies
involved in any answer to such a question.  I should perhaps
point out that occurences are considerably HIGHER in areas
where the intelligence level required for such jobs as
throws individuals together is considerably LOWER, at least
from my observations.  Within my battalion, all cases
took place in our Headquarters company ... the mechanics
and infantry support areas.  Tankers don't have to be
the smartest of individuals, but our GT scores to had to
be considerably higher than 'average' in order to qualify
to be a tank crewman.  Of the other battalions where
occurences were higher, the same applies -- jobs where
the intelligence requirements were considerably lower.
I personally believe that this problem is an extension of
some sort of other social ill within this society.  People
are quick to say that "other countries don't have problems
with homosexuality in their militaries," but of all cited
examples, those same countries are the ones that ALSO don't
have other sexual/social ills on the scale of this country.
 
What are the solutions?  I honestly couldn't say.  I'm
not a sociologist.  I'm not going to even pretend to
have any answers, other than to point out the implied
logic that there is a larger scale problem here, and
solving THAT one might possibly solve many others.  Of
all of the arguments I HAVE heard here on this thread,
none of them tend to the PRIMARY problems, nor even look
at such large scale issues as I've brought up.  Most
of what I've heard is people calling each other (albeit
politely) bigots and fags.  And THAT solves nothing.
 
Jim

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