From: GayScribe@aol.com Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 20:28:00 -0500 Subject: GS!> SUBMISSION: Military Treatment of Gays, Blacks Similar ]==================================[ GayScribe ]==================================[ Welcome again to GayScribe -- featuring the journalism of Gip Plaster. Visit GayScribe REDESIGNED page on the Web at http://members.aol.com/gayscribe. Attached is an article for your periodical to consider for publication. (If you are not a publication or wish to be removed from this list, please see the "To Be Removed" section below.) ]==================================[ About This Article ]==================================[ MILITARY TREATMENT OF GAYS, BLACKS PARALLEL It is no suprise to anyone that the military discriminates against gays and lesbians. Recent events like the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" controversy and the Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer case make that clear. But long before the public heard about gay and lesbian discrimination, the military had to learn to include African Americans. In this review of an essay in the new book Gay Rights, Military Wrongs, I examine the striking parallels. That piece is below; it is this week offering on GayScribe. ]==================================[ If You Are Interested ]==================================[ If your publication normally pays for articles and reviews, please contact Gip Plaster, prior to publication at GPlaster@aol.com -- or within a week of publication if you are on a tight deadline and prior notification is not possible. If your publication does not pay, you may be able to publish the piece at no cost. Please contact the author for details. A brief bio is provided for publications that wish to use it: "Gip Plaster is an independent writer for gay and lesbian publications around the country. Reach him on-line at gplaster@aol.com." ]==================================[ To Be Removed ]==================================[ IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS LIST: This list was selected from lists of people interested in quality gay and lesbian journalism. If you wish to be removed from this list or if you would like future articles and reviews to go to a different address, please write GayScribe@aol.com, and your information will be updated immediately. THANKS FOR YOUR TIME AND COOPERATION. PLEASE OFFER YOUR FEEDBACK AT GAYSCRIBE@AOL.COM. ]==================================[ The Article ]==================================[ by Gip Plaster GayScribe Not many people were surprised when it became public that gays and lesbians are not welcome in the military, but this community in not the first to be excluded from service, and at least one author sees a parallel. Long before gay and lesbian people were the target of the military's open opposition, African Americans had to fight for their right to serve. "The arguments used to keep African Americans segregated are so similar to those that barred lesbians and gays in the early 1990s that a gay newspaper, the Washington Blade, argued that the history of the military's exclusion of African Americans 'seems to be serving as a blueprint for the military on how to dissuade the government from allowing gays to serve openly in the ranks,'" writes David Ari Bianco in an essay entitled "Echoes of Prejudice." It is one of ten essays in the book Gay Rights, Military Wrongs, edited by Craig Rimmerman (Garland Publishing). Some scholars and African American activists are troubled by the parallel Bianco points out between the two groups. "Race is an immutable characteristic (such as skin color), while active homosexuality concerns behavior," Robert H. Knight, the director of Cultural Studies for the Family Research Council, said. "You cannot hide or change your skin color, but you can choose to act or not on your inclinations." While Bianco asserts that Knight and others who make similar arguments are misinformed, Bianco said that in the long run, it doesn't really matter anyway. "The important question, however, is not whether race is similar to sexual orientation, but whether racism is similar to homophobia," Bianco wrote. "In the case of ... allowing African Americans and lesbians and gays to serve, racism and homophobia have been strikingly similar." Bianco lays out what he said are the sixteen major arguments used to exclude gay and lesbian people from military service. He divides these sixteen into four categories. First, some of those opposed to homosexuals in the military maintain that lesbians and gays are not fit to serve. Just as was the case when integration of blacks into the military began, some don't want gays and lesbians in the armed forces because they believe the excluded minority is made of criminals. Some even suggest that gay men are likely to rape straight service members. Disease is another part of the reason some think gays unfit to serve. They believe gay male recruits will spread the AIDS virus. Similar arguments were made against blacks in the military because of the sexually-transmitted diseased they were believed to have. Succumbing to those fears, the Red Cross maintained a segregated blood bank during World War II. Others simply don't think homosexuals would perform as well as straights. "People tend to look at homosexuals as being somewhat weak and nonaggressive individuals," Colonel Jim Schwenk said. Another colonel wrote that literature suggests "homosexuals generally need support groups in order to function and that absent a supportive environment most will fail." Earlier this century, Bianco quotes one historian as saying that most senior officials "took the position that black servicemen were difficult to train and undependable in battle." Some argue that gay and straight people cannot serve effectively together. This could make it difficult to recruit and difficult to retain service people, they suggest. Bianco wrote, "The perceived danger of gays in the military to morale is so great that [Vietnam veteran David] Hackworth put it starkly: 'I cannot think of a better way to destroy fighting spirit and gut U.S. combat effectiveness.'" Other opponents say lifting the ban would impair the mission of the military, and it is also argued that the rights of heterosexuals will be infringed if gays and lesbians are not discriminated against. "Do we not fight better, more courageously, more tenaciously, when we fight with those we like? The gentleman may not like me," a congresswoman said, referring to an African American colleague. "Should we have a law which will force him to sleep in my bed, in my room with me, to eat with me, if he does not like me nor my ways?" Bianco noted, "These comments about soldiers sleeping together (along with Senator Russell's citation of statistics showing African Americans as more likely to carry syphilis and be convicted of sodomy) underscore the fact that military racism and military homophobia are two sides of the same coin." David Ari Bianco draws a number of convincing parallels between the exclusion and eventually acceptance of African Americans in the military and the exclusion and yet-to-be-determined resolution to the place of gays and lesbians in the armed forces. Bianco said he hopes these parallels will give pause to those who fight against inclusion of gays in the military and provide to those who support inclusion some hope that the exclusion will be overcome. In any case, when African Americans began to gain a true place in American society, the conservative structure of the military eventually allowed them full privileges of service. Perhaps the military's exclusion of lesbians and gays in just one more example of how far this community must still come. ]==================================[ The GayScribe Page: http://members.aol.com/gayscribe ]==================================[ END