submandave

of the "not my bag" blues.

Blogfather notes yet another article bemoaning how the U.S. military continues to discharge gay Arab linguists for no reason at all. Except, of course, the minor issue that they are legally required to do so. The folks discharged this time bemoan how they were so discrete:

"I was always discreet; I never considered it would be an issue," said Benjamin, when asked why he joined the military knowing the policy existed. "I thought if I don't say anything, they're not going to ask me. But it was more aggressive than I thought."

So what was the "aggressive" technique used to persecute the gays this time? Well, seems they got busted sending "discrete" naughty e-mails to their friends over SIPRNET (the secure network used by DoD to communicate classified information). Guess he never realized that use of the secure network could be monitored. And lest anyone tell you otherwise, this wasn't a gay witch hunt, as several others were pinched misusing the bandwidth as well.

He said he was particularly frustrated that he was among about 70 people investigated at a base in the state of Georgia for using the computer to send personal notes, and others who are not gay still are in the Army, even though they were caught sending sexual and profane messages.

This is easilly explained by the fact that there is no law requiring the discharge of people who tell dirty jokes.

Once again, the only reason any person is discharged from the military for being gay is because there is a federal law prohibiting gays from serving. For a change the congress-criter quoted, Rep. Marty Meehan (D), actually is sponsoring legislation to change the law instead of just pointing fingers at the military, but the article on a whole still tries to keep the familiar villian front and center. Despite teh fact that handlebar mustaches are against regulations.

Labels: congress, policy