Yes, at least where I live. Vaginal rape would be considered rape, while the legal term for anal or oral rape would be aggravated sodomy. Technically, they are different crimes, although I’m not sure if the punnishment is any different. I get the impression that Georgia isn’t the only state where the laws are that way.
I’d say sodomizing the judge in the courtroom would be pretty convincing.
I know that was meant as a joke, but it wouldn’t be very convincing of anything other than the willingness to carry out an act of violence on the judge. May or may not be a moral thing, but certainly unhelpful in a courtroom setting, not that I’m a lawyer or anything (NTIALOA).
What about the Gay Games (used to be the Gay Olympics). I mean if I was a swimmer (or whatever) ALMOST good enough to be in the Olympics couldn;t I sign up for the GGs in order to represent my country?
How could they check?
I have often wondered about Nation of Islam meetings too. Is there someone at the front door checking skin tone?
HomoCard – don’t leave home without it. Because at Jim Bob and Liberace’s Den of Gay Delights, they DON’T take American Express.
Responses thus far have covered the subject of being thrown out of the military for being gay. However, none have addressed another issued raised in the OP: can you not get drafted because you’re gay?
Imagine the US goes to war with Outer Slombovia, and young men are drafted left & right. Naturally, not all are going to want to go. So can Joe Draftee walk into the Draft Board office and say, “I’m queer. Thanks but no thanks,” and thus avoid military service?* Or are they going to want proof? In this case, what contitutes proof?
*As I understand it, if you avoid the draft by claiming Conscientious Objector, then The Man presses you into service some other way, like making you be an orderly at a hospital or something, until the war is over. Perhaps those who avoid the draft by claiming homosexuality get the same treatment.
Well, in wartime historically the standards for serving slip quite a bit.
Many years ago, when I was still falling out of airplanes for aliving there was a headline in the Army Times “Gay Wins Right to Retire.”
It seems Mr Tentpeg got drafted for Vietnam. He told everyone he was gay, but nobody would listen. So he goes inthe Army and finds a home as they say.
After eighteen years of honorable service the Army tries to discharge SFC Tentpeg. Because he was gay.
The CMA ruled in his favor of course.
(Remember Casablanca? “I’m shocked, shocked gambling is going on here.”)
It seems to me that owning a Judy Garland CD would be sufficient proof of one’s gayness.
Cliffy, thanks for providing that link for furt. I didn’t see the request until today, and probably couldn’t’ve found it on my own anyway.
When I joined the military (National Guard), one of the questions I was asked during my entry physical in basic training was whether I was a homosexual. At the time, I wasn’t out even to myself, so I said “no”. I suppose if I had said “yes”, I would have been sent home. But I don’t know how I would have proved I was gay, if asked to do so, because at that point (age 17) I hadn’t done anything with anyone, male or female. How do heterosexual virgins prove that they’re “straight”? (I should note that this was in 1984, well before the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.)
I distinctly recall reading that the military (the American one, at least) has a habit of conveniently ignoring the “we don’t take gays / openly gay people” policy in times of war (ie, when we would actually be short enough of soldiers to require a draft). They’ll take anyone, meaning gays that -want- to serve, and as soon as they’re not needed anymore go “oh, the no gays policy, righto! forgot about that” and kick them out. Is this true? I suppose you’d have to go looking at cases where gays have been kicked out immediately after the end of a draft situation or something, but I’m sure I read about something like this somewhere.
FWIW, Neil Simon’s tale Biloxi Blues recalls in incident in WWII (when, obviously, men were being drafted). Two men got caught in the latrine doing something they shouldn’t have been doing, and they were court-martialed, with the implication that they were headed for Leavenworth. So that would mean, at least in WWII times, that being gay would get you out of the draft. YMMV…
Since this has rather mutated into a gays in the military thread, the definitive books on the topic are Allan Berube’s Coming Out Under Fire and Randy Shilts’ Coming Out Under Fire. These show that the military’s overall attitude toward homosexuality in the ranks has been wildly inconsistent depending on the military’s perceived need for warm bodies. Paul in Saudi’s “Mister Tentpeg” was Perry Watkins. He checked “yes” next to “homosexual tendencies” on his intake form when he was drafted in 1967 and was inducted in 1968. The Army then attempted to discharge him several times over the course of a 14-year career. Ultimately a federal appeals court ordered his reinstatement and in 1990 the USSC refused to hear the government’s appeal. He was reinstated with full back pay and benefits, then retired. He died in 1996. And since Paul is in Saudi, I’ll use that as a flimsy pretext for shoe-horning in the most recent bit of military stupidity. Despite a desperate shortage of linguists trained in Arabic, the military recently discharged a half-dozen Arab linguists for being gay.
And if two people, two people do it, in harmony,
they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them.
I’ve often wondered how the military would confront this issue in the event that the draft is needed again. With being gay less of a stigma in some areas, how many straight guys would claim being gay to avoid serving? What would the military do if large numbers of guys did this?