DADT Repeal

[trickykitty]

"Air Force Capt. Diane Cox, whose gay son served in the Navy, said she got into heated debates with service members vowing not to take showers and share rooms with gays before Congress voted to repeal the law, but after the military held sensitivity trainings to explain the new rules "everybody just shut up."

Jokes are still told about gay people but the harsh remarks have stopped, she said."


It's always interesting to watch people climb out of their mob mentality. It saddens me how often we humans require an authority figure to tell us how to think humanely. It also saddens me knowing that when they say the harsh remarks have stopped, I know that should be read as "most of the harsh remarks have stopped."

Comments

[siliconshaman]

You know, this does make me think... the various services are ok now [in theory] with same gendered crews sleeping/showering and serving together, even if some of them might be homosexual... and yet, doing the same thing if they're a mixed gender crew isn't ok?

Kind of a double standard there.

[trickykitty]

I did not skip past the shower scene in Starship Troopers while showing it to my nephews, aged 4 and 8. The society displayed in the movie is one in which gender and nakedness is not made to be a big deal, and as such, it simply isn't a big deal. If the boys had asked me about it (which they didn't), I would have answered them as such.

The new BSG is too mature in general for me to show my nephews, but it also displays the same level of acceptance in their quarters.

The same holds true for Ender's Game, which I just finished reading. The kids typically slept naked, as well as changed and showered together. Those were also mixed gender groups, granted with much fewer females than males. There was a specific description of one leader being protective of his female charge and ordering the other members of the group to not go past her bunk naked. If you wanted to go into the hall and to the restroom, you had to clothe yourself before going past her bunk. I can picture the Ender's Game society being a mid-ground towards the full-acceptance societies of Starship Troopers and BSG.

[jdack]

Sad isn't it, that only in fiction is a Soldier a Soldier.

"omg I'm not showering with that dude he's gonna try to rape me or whack off to me later because I AM SO HOT."

Ugh.