# So what's happening now that gays can serve openly in the US military?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-happening-now-that-gays-can-serve-openly-in-the-us-military/608898>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 9, 2012, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-happening-now-that-gays-can-serve-openly-in-the-us-military/608898 "2012-01-09T06:33:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-happening-now-that-gays-can-serve-openly-in-the-us-military/608898/81 "2012-01-14T17:58:27Z")

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> [@Number](#):
>
> I thought the whole point of this change was that sailors wouldn’t have to deal with the expense of beards anymore.

Back in 1983 Hays banned beards as he ‘thought they looked unprofessional and were not traditional’ _cough_bullshit_cough_ though I agree that they can present a problem putting on respirators if the area under the chin is not clean shaven, and I suppose they can be a bit unsightly if the guy doesn’t keep them neatly trimmed. So at least the MWR committee could make some money during cruises. [If you had hydritis you could get a no shave chit if the low antibiotic regimine doesn’t work, though there are also health issues from 100mg tetracycline forever…]

There really is not any particular expense associated with beards, you would have to groom the beard every day just like you have to shave every day. Though mrAru was happy when he ended up with alopecia, he joked other than missing his eyelashes and nose hairs, he was saving a lot of money on haircuts and shaving supplies:D

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**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-happening-now-that-gays-can-serve-openly-in-the-us-military/608898/82 "2012-01-14T19:26:30Z")

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> [@aruvqan](#):
>
> Back in 1983 Hays banned beards as he ‘thought they looked unprofessional and were not traditional’ _cough_bullshit_cough_ though I agree that they can present a problem putting on respirators if the area under the chin is not clean shaven, and I suppose they can be a bit unsightly if the guy doesn’t keep them neatly trimmed. So at least the MWR committee could make some money during cruises. [If you had hydritis you could get a no shave chit if the low antibiotic regimine doesn’t work, though there are also health issues from 100mg tetracycline forever…]
> 
> There really is not any particular expense associated with beards, you would have to groom the beard every day just like you have to shave every day. Though mrAru was happy when he ended up with alopecia, he joked other than missing his eyelashes and nose hairs, he was saving a lot of money on haircuts and shaving supplies:D

Whew! Feel that overflight? Notice the sound it made?

A beard is slang usage for a platonic opposite-sex escort/companion for persons not in a position to admit their same-sec orientation.

Hence the pun that the abolition of DADT would eliminate the expense of maintaining a beard.

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