# homosexuals in the military
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [December 10, 2002, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710 "2002-12-10T04:47:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@JerseyDiamond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyDiamond)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/1 "2002-12-10T04:47:20Z")
I was just watching the O’Reilly Factor. He was interviewing a guy who was just discharged from the military for being gay.
**Alastair Gamble** was an army specialist trained to speak Arabic. [one article I found](http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/15/1037080899015.html)
Reading the story is not the same as watching Mr. Gamble live on O’Reilly. I felt so bad for him.
He seemed to be a guy that was dedicated to his country. He wasn’t bitter at all. I am not trying to put anyone down, but I am so used of gay people seeming bitter, that this was a dramatic change.
These are the type of people we need in the military. Dedicated, hard working, and honest.
What’s amazing is that the military is in desperate need for Arabic Linguists, but they let him go.
His response was so selfless. In a nutshell, he said rules are rules. I cannot fnd the interview from O’Reilly.
It really sucks ☹
JD
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### Author:  [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/2 "2002-12-10T05:21:01Z")
JerseyDiamond, sad to say, in the millitary, the rules **must** be the rules. You can not break them, occasionally you can bend them, but when they are broken, the effects are felt farther than in the civilian world. Part of what makes the military work is the strict discipline, once that starts to fray, the unit capablity collapses. This has been shown many times to be true.
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### Author:  [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/3 "2002-12-10T05:21:53Z")
But why does it have to be a rule that gays can’t be in the military?
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### Author:  [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/4 "2002-12-10T05:24:38Z")
The Bible says they’re nasty :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@JerseyDiamond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyDiamond)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/5 "2002-12-10T05:41:51Z")
Happyheathen
Thanks for contributing, you are so helpful. :rolleyes:
This is why I take no stock in what you say.
Now, if you could only learn to ignore me and not respond to me! Then again, I know how important I am to you, so I am sure I will see you soon. _sigh_
Always gotta talk crap, don’t you.
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### Author:  [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/6 "2002-12-10T06:14:44Z")
So which is it?
Are gays are nasty, evil people who are eternally damned, or are they valuable linguists?
The “it depends” response it not available to you - your absolutism has precluded it.
and who is it that “talks crap”?
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### Author:  [@The\_Ace\_of\_Swords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ace_of_Swords)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/7 "2002-12-10T06:23:03Z")
**Narile** :
Alstair Gamble was caught hanging out in another translator’s bed. Not enflagrante. They then searched through the lockers of both Hicks (the other guy) and Gamble, and found the [incriminating evidence:](http://newslink.nandomedia.com/NandoTimes/politics/election/opinions/story/619699p-4764963c.html)
Postcards – not mash notes, just postcards. Oh, and pictures, too.
Being booted out of the Army isn’t the punishment for hetero couples caught together, and I hope it isn’t too much to ask the _ARMY TO FOCUS ON THE FUCKING TERRORISTS and maybe let the homo-witchhunt slide a fucking little?_
Did not the NSA translate the “Zero hour” message one day late for lack of translators? Why do you think this rule should take precedence over stopping terrorism?
If the military were to once again be short on translation and failed to stop a terrorist attack on that basis, I would consider them responsible; if for no other reason than whom it might fail, this bigoted rule should be sent straight to the crapper. Forgive me if I think my life takes precedence over such nebulous concerns as “unit cohesion,” which for a group of individual workers like a translating office, should have a factor of exactly _zero._
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### Author:  [@JerseyDiamond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyDiamond)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/8 "2002-12-10T06:32:29Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by happyheathen \*
> \*\*So which is it?
>
> Are gays are nasty, evil people who are eternally damned, or are they valuable linguists?
>
> The “it depends” response it not available to you - your absolutism has precluded it.
>
> and who is it that “talks crap”? \*\*
Come on, you can’t possibly be that dumb. Would you like to back up what you have said I have said?
Please shut up and go away! I am really not interested in your opinion, really, I am not.
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### Author:  [@The\_Ace\_of\_Swords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ace_of_Swords)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/9 "2002-12-10T06:43:26Z")
**Happy heathen** , drop the hijack. There’s a thread right over [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=146632) where you can post that sort of thing.
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### Author:  [@Tanaqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanaqui)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/10 "2002-12-10T07:04:58Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Please shut up and go away! I am really not interested in your opinion, really, I am not.
This may come as a surprise, but I am not interested in your opinion either. I don’t see why you are posting here when I have such a complete lack of interest in your comments. How dare you post your uninteresting comments in a board that _I_ read?
> [@](#):
>
> I am not trying to put anyone down, but I am so used of gay people seeming bitter, that this was a dramatic change.
Yeah. Suuuuuure you’re not trying to put anyone down. :rolleyes:
Those damn gay people! How dare they be bitter just because people of the same sexual orientation as them are daily discriminated against simply because they love people of the same sex? The cheek! Next they’ll be expecting the right to get married, like _normal_ Christian people!
Maybe I’m reading too much into that delightful little comment, but with your record and the total unnecessary nature of said comment, I doubt it.
Maybe this attempt at showing you’re not actually a hateful bigot would be more successful if you could stop with the unpleasant little backhanded compliments.
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### Author:  [@JerseyDiamond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyDiamond)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/11 "2002-12-10T07:13:56Z")
ok, you are right. I sholdn’t have posted my thoughts on this. Mods, please close this thread…
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/12 "2002-12-10T07:19:27Z")
OK, c’mon, people. I’m always up for a good “dogpile the homphobe” thread, but this is ridiculous. She’s here actually supporting allowing gays to serve in the military, (which is a GOOD THING, I’d like to remind you) and all you can do is use it as an opportunity to give her more shit? With this sort of reception, why should she ever change her opinions on anything else regarding gays?
Besides, **happyheathen** doesn’t like her, so she must be doing _something_ right.
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### Author:  [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/13 "2002-12-10T11:13:04Z")
Happyheathen, thanks for showing everybody that your personal prejudices against people take precedence over their views on any given topic. You give her shit if she says she believes homosexuality is a sin, then you give her more shit if she says homosexuals shouldn’t be discriminated against?!
What a jerk. Why don’t you take your idiocy and your petty hatred someplace else, where it can be appreciated.
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### Author:  [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/14 "2002-12-10T11:49:38Z")
> [@](#):
>
> _Miller_
> She’s here actually supporting allowing gays to serve in the military,
Oh bullshit she was.
> [@](#):
>
> _JerseyDiamond_
> He seemed to be a guy that was dedicated to his country. \*\*He wasn’t bitter at all. I am not trying to put anyone down, but I am so used of gay people seeming bitter, that this was a dramatic change. \*\*
That surely is the point of the thread: a sly slam at “bitter gay posters”. And now she’s had her shot she wants it closed. Slightly better I suppose than His4Ever, who posted her response to the big train wreck in MPSIMS.
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### Author:  [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/15 "2002-12-10T11:59:01Z")
Yeah, why can’t gays lighten up and just accept their status as second-class citizens? Rules are rules, afterall :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/16 "2002-12-10T12:16:56Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Besides, happyheathen doesn’t like her, so she must be doing something right.
Does HH like _anybody_? If he has made a useful, non-assholic, non-trite, non-snide comment on this message board, I have yet to see it.
In any case, this thread looks like it’s going to go the way of “December saying something right”-type threads… people are so dead-set on seeing what they WANT to see, based on reputation, that they’ll spin someone’s words around any way they see fit.
For the record, Jersey, I read your comment to mean “It’s interesting to see a person - GAY OR STRAIGHT - to take such a terrible tragedy with such grace.”
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### Author:  [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/17 "2002-12-10T12:32:19Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Tanaqui \*
> \*\*Maybe this attempt at showing you’re not actually a hateful bigot would be more successful if you could stop with the unpleasant little backhanded compliments. \*\*
Fuck off Tanaqui. Fucking assbag.
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### Author:  [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/18 "2002-12-10T12:40:58Z")
I swear to christ you fucking over zealous homophobe hunters make this fucking forum so hard to read. Thread after fucking thread hijacked from its original topic and routed down a road where the OP or another poster has to begin defending him or herself against lame fucking blasts on thier character based on one or two sentences on a message board. May as well close the threads at that point because they aren’t going to get back to the original topic after that.
There needs to be another forum on here dedicated for use only by the homphobe hunters so they can lay down as much fire on the poor souls who say the wrong thing and the rest of us who aren’t so anal retentive can continue on with the ACTUAL fucking discussion instead of dealing with your weak ass hijacks.
Fuck heads.
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### Author:  [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/19 "2002-12-10T12:50:29Z")
I completely forgot this was in the Pit, rather than GD. Completely shocked by the language being used.
But then I remembered.
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### Author:  [@Sebhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sebhal)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2002, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homosexuals-in-the-military/141710/20 "2002-12-10T12:51:44Z")
Notwithstanding the thread **Ace of Swords** linked to, I’m with **SPOOFE** on this. I came to this thread (with **JerseyDiamond** and homosexuals in the same sentence) and felt my indignation level rising even as the thread loaded, only to find what seemed a perfectly reasonable argument. Maybe I’m a sub-standard poster in that I don’t weight up the possible ramifications of every single word that I right in a post, but FWIW I for one am willing to give **Jersey** and the
> [@](#):
>
> I am not trying to put anyone down
comment the benefit of the doubt on this one.
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