You can purchase an autographed copy of Anything But Straight by sending a $35 check or money order to:
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Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
Imagine a Middle Eastern terror cell infiltrating the United States with a plot to blow up the nation's capital with a crude nuclear device stashed in a suitcase. If the terrorists succeed, hundreds of thousands of Americans would be annihilated.
In a desperate attempt to stop the horrific plot, military specialists pour over Arabic "chatter" looking for specific leads. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of hours of tape and very few Arabic specialists to decipher the clues.
Time runs out. TO READ MORE CLICK HERE
8 Comments:
This is uber brilliant. Those fundees are insane.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/01/2005 11:10 PM
Wayne:
Fundies? I did some research on the web, reading the AP and Washington Post stories. Your facts appear to be correct - 26 people total discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. And yes, I think that's a shame, and harmful to our nation.
At least one of those who was discharged went to his supervisor and announced his sexual orientation after completing language school, demanding to be discharged. Did a 'fundie' do that? How many more of those discharged actually sought to be released from duty?
The news story goes on to describe some former service members who are suing to be reinstated, but the article does NOT state that those twelve are from the group of linguists discharged for violating the DADT policy. Rather clever, that - it IMPLIES without actually saying. Which means it is not actually the case, but it is not a lie, because the author does not make that actual statement.
DADT was a policy adopted by the military in 1993, under the stewardship of former President Bill Clinton. Fundie? Maybe closet.
I have no doubt that the 'fundies' do not want gay members of the military. But they didn't force these service members to be discharged - they helped shape the policy that has turned around to bite us all. Guilty of short-sightedness, but little else, this time.
Please, please, please. If you want to say that fundamentalist Christians have set in motion policies that you don't agree with, and which are having unintended consequences years later, during our War on Terror. But let's not say that "those fundies" are tossing gay linguists out of the military with abandon, actually preferring death by smuggled nuclear device than discovery of a terrorist plot by a gay service member.
1. more than 200 million wasted by kicking gay service members out of the military 2. loss of some 10,000 trained service members at a time of war 3. gay service members already living under the stress of war have to put up with added stress of putting on a daily charade and lie in order to proudly serve 4. while fighting a county that the current administration now claims is for freedom (as opposed the original claim that WMD were imminently upon us), our gay service members lack the basic freedom to love the person of their choosing.
But you say that the religious right is only "Guilty of short-sightedness, but little else, this time."
Were it not for the religious right, gay service men and women would not have to live a lie, our country would have thousands more servicemen and 200 million that could have been spent on properly bullet proofing our men and their vehicle. Recent polls indicate that over 60% of the American public believes that gay's should be able to serve openly. If this is little more than short sightedness to you, well I suggest that you are not dealing with a full deck.
Further, Bringing these facts to light IS NOT PREDUDICE as you claim. Christians and any other religious groups do NOT have the right discriminate against others by claiming religious freedom. Can I as a Catholic kick you out of my apartment or fire you from your job because you got a divorce? Divorce is against my religion and thus by their logic not allowing me to fire someone who got a divorce is religious discrimination. I don’t think that this argument would ever survive public opinion even if it did survive the courts. So why is this argument ok when made against gay? When facts are allowed to be called prejudice in the name of religion, our democracy is jeopardy of becoming a theocracy. Funny how that brings us back to the current war and our brave military.
Check out: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0503030100mar03,1,5578406.story
posted by Anonymous, at
3/04/2005 6:06 PM
Your comments don't even address any of my points. Made-up 'facts' and urban myth don't interest me much. But please believe what you want. And I'm Catholic too, so you can stop barking up that tree.
posted by Unknown, at
3/10/2005 7:18 AM
Wayne, this is the first time I've seen your page. I'm a high school student and a member of my schools policy debate team. I just thought you might want to know that a total of 322 people have been discharged who were linguists in the military for "being gay" and that AT LEAST 54 of those discharged linguists spoke Arabic.
I just thought you might like to know.
You might also want to know about an Act that was introducted to a subcommittee of the House of Reps. Its called the Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2005. Contact your local representative or congressmen and do a little research about the act to find out what a wonder it would do for our nation's military and for our nation's gay servicemembers!
You can email if you need/want to know more. PLEASE NO SPAM ANYONE!! OR I WILL REPORT YOU.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/24/2006 9:05 PM
