http://lagai.org/UVFeb2010.htm#_Toc256891264
February 2010
A year after his election, Barack Obama has put "don't ask, don't
tell" back in the news, at the same time as he once and for all kills
off even the narrow "public option" for health care reform.
Look – something bright and shiny
As with Gavin Newsom's declaration of legalized gay marriage after he
was elected on an anti-homeless platform, Obama, having turned
"health care reform" over to the insurance companies, sees an easy
way to mollify liberals by proposing to permit lesbians and gay men
to openly serve in the military. Of course, Obama isn't pushing the
change to happen immediately – he has said he would consult with
military leaders, who in turn say they need a year to study the
issue. However, a recent report by u.c. santa barbara's palm center
found that countries that changed their policies to permit lesbians
and gays in the military did so quickly, and with little disruption.
It also cited a 1993 study by the Rand corporation that found that
delayed or phased-in implementation would permit the anti-gay forces
to "consolidate" their opposition.
Since "don't ask, don't tell" was implemented in 1994, more than
13,000 service members have been discharged for being lesbian or gay.
LAGAI – Queer Insurrection opposes all discrimination against LGBT
people, of course, and we therefore oppose any action taken by the
military against LGBT service members.
But the u.s. military is not about liberation, it is about
imperialism and oppression. It is about bombing towns and villages
with conventional bombs, pilotless drones, napalm and white
phosphorus, and then whitewashing civilian deaths as "collateral
damage." It's about occupying countries to ensure the ability of
multi-national corporations to pay nineteen cents an hour to produce
mickey mouse t-shirts. It's about torturing people whether by holding
them out of airplanes and helicopters during the Vietnam war or water
boarding, hangings and humiliations at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. The
u.s. military is about domestic repression, whether attacking
striking miners in West Virginia from 1919-1921
(http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh50-1.html), or
occupying Washington DC (1968), Los Angeles (1992) or New Orleans (2005).
LAGAI was formed in 1983 to oppose u.s. intervention in Latin
America, and we have consistently fought against the u.s. military,
and the militarization of the u.s. One of our founding members, Tede
Mathews was a gay draft resister during the Vietnam war. One of our
current members, Daniel Ward, got kicked out of the navy in 1988 for
being gay (he told, so they asked). In 1991, as the "human rights"
campaign was advancing their pro-military agenda, we put out a packet
of personal stories and articles, "We Like Our Queers Out of
Uniform." In 1993, we joined with other progressive queers to form a
Queers Out of Uniform contingent in the March on Washington. We have
continued our anti-military efforts since (and before) our founding,
whether it has been to oppose ROTC in the schools, or to demand the
u.s. end the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. Simply put, while it may
be a civil right to join the military, it is a human right, and our
responsibility to other oppressed people, to stay out.
Certainly some queer people, like other people, join the military
because they need a job, or are hoping for a chance to go to
college, or because they need to get away from their families. Yet
even in these terrible economic times, with over 10 percent official
unemployment, the u.s. military has had to reduce its recruiting
goals in order to be able to claim success in meeting them. Despite
the fact that the government plans to expand the military during the
2009-2012 period, the army has reduced its recruitment goal from
80,000 in 2008 to 65,000 in 2009. This reduced goal allowed the army
to proudly announce in February 2010 that they had met, and exceeded,
their recruitment goal for the first time since 1973, even though
they had actually recruited 10,000 less people than they had in FY 2008.
Since the draft was abolished in 1973, the u.s. military has been
forced to rely on economic coercion, promises of education, travel
and camaraderie, and nationalism to fill its ranks. For the past 20
years, it has tried to create an image as a modern and diverse place
where a person can excel to the best of their abilities – first
the "Be All that You Can Be" campaign, then briefly the confusing
"Army of One", and now "Army Strong," which comes with a set of music
videos that are played in movie theaters before the show.
In regards to don't ask/don't tell, the military is confronted with a
difficult choice of messages. The majority of people in the u.s.,
particularly in the recruitment age groups, claim not to support
discrimination against LGBT people. On the other hand, the military
relies on an aggressive super-masculine image, masculine often to the
point of homoeroticism, with or without the Village people.
Images aside, in 2008 there were almost 3000 reported sexual assaults
on service women, and in one VA hospital survey, four out of ten
women reported being sexually assaulted during their military
careers. The reported number is likely substantially below the actual
number, since a study by the Government Accountability Office found
that only about one-half of all military sexual assaults are
reported. A 1999 pentagon survey found that 47 percent of Latinos
and 48 percent of African Americans in the military had "experienced
incidents that caused them to lose trust in their colleagues." A
2000 study by the u.s. military found that 5 percent of service
members had witnessed a violent anti-gay beating in the previous year.
What is odd about the straight left is how eager they are to support
assimilationist demands for gays in the military. Our (ambivalently)
beloved KPFA seems unable to understand that the anti-war resisters
in the military are being persecuted by the same military who the
"human rights" campaign is advocating queers be allowed to join. Will
Iraqi, Afghan or Haitian civilians be happier to be shot by queers?
Veterans are more likely to be homeless, to be unemployed, and to
suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder than are civilians.
Although the media portrays anti-war movements as anti-veteran and
anti-soldier, in fact, it was anti-war activists who turned out to
support lesbians at Fort Lewis who were facing discipline and
discharge for being gay, anti-war activists who supported Vietnam
veterans' demands to get compensation for the effects of agent
orange, and anti-war activists who supported Iraq veterans to get
recognition for gulf-war syndrome.
The mainstream media focuses on gay marriage and gays in the military
because these struggles for assimilation appear to affirm the
rightness of this wretched straight society. But as queer
liberationists, we know that assimilation is not liberation, and we
offer instead our vision of a society in which we do not follow
orders and do not murder, but are free to live and to love.
Queers Out of Uniform!
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