I am opposed to sexual preference discrimination in general, but for junior officers I think that there is a potential problem. Some young men, away from home for the first time and forced to live very close to other young men, may need to seek advice about acceptable behavior from their officer.
They deserve to be talking to someone who is not in favor of homosexual relationships. Even if the officer never acts inappropriately he is still in a conflicted situation.
I don’t even know where to start. I think that there is still a pervasive idea that gay men all have an underlying deviance. There are plenty of young female officers that have male soldiers. Are they unqualified to give advice to the men in their charge? Same for male leaders that are in charge of female soldiers. You could use your same ‘conflicted situation’ argument for both of those situations.
I know someone will probably counter with ‘well, neither of those situations involve the officer living in barracks with them.’ To that I say ‘get over it.’ I think there is far more compelling evidence to restrict male leaders from being in charge of female soldiers. What is it that you are afraid of that is more dangerous than that? Should male soldiers be barred from the service because they regularly rape and assault female soldiers?
RE: No sir? by bonesaw :: NR5 :: Show
I don’t even know where to start. I think that there is still a pervasive idea that gay men all have an underlying deviance. There are plenty of young female officers that have male soldiers. Are they unqualified to give advice to the men in their charge? Same for male leaders that are in charge of female soldiers. You could use your same ‘conflicted situation’ argument for both of those situations.
I know someone will probably counter with ‘well, neither of those situations involve the officer living in barracks with them.’ To that I say ‘get over it.’ I think there is far more compelling evidence to restrict male leaders from being in charge of female soldiers. What is it that you are afraid of that is more dangerous than that? Should male soldiers be barred from the service because they regularly rape and assault female soldiers?