Friday, September 30, 2011

[CE] US lifts ban on gay soldiers

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/09/201192023913325189.html

The US policy banning gays from serving openly in the military ends on Tuesday, and the Pentagon says it is prepared for the change. President Barack Obama last December signed legislation to repeal the policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which had been passed by Congress and signed into law in 1993 under then-President Bill Clinton.

The abrogation of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy shows the improvement on the treatment towards people who are homosexuals. I feel that the primary purpose of “don’t ask” is to allow homosexual people to serve in the military. But the policy proved to be little protection, and since the, about 14,000 men and women have been forced out of the service under “don’t ask.” Government should not take the soldiers’ jobs away just because they are gay.   

I read from a newspaper that Former Defense Undersecretary Bernard Rosker said in an interview that the end of “don’t ask” won’t necessarily lead gays and lesbians in the military to come out. Rostker led a landmark 1993 Rand study on homosexuality and the military, and he said he found that even in other countries where it was allowed, men and women in the armed forces tended to keep their sexual orientation to themselves. “We found that for most people it is a private matter,” Rostker said,” and the like to keep it that way. The reason may be that homosexual people are not being accepted by all the people, thought the views of people are changing. They may have an inner battle at the time they found out that they interested in people who have the same gender.

No comments:

Post a Comment