Hey, guys! I’m honored to be here and thank Jessica for inviting me. I’ve posted once before (about the National Guard), but that was as a guest. Jessica’s now given me an actual login (Bwahahahahahahaaa!), so here I am!
My connection to the military is that I served for 7 1/2 years in the Army National Guard. My connection to romance is that I’m a college professor at Fayetteville State University (right outside Ft. Bragg), and I study romance novels for a living. I’m the President of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR) and I’ve recently published an analytical article on Suzanne Brockmann’s Navy SEAL/security contractor romance hero, Sam Starrett. I also review for Dear Author and post at Teach Me Tonight.
In my once a month posts, though, I’ll probably be posting about something a little more controversial than the National Guard or Suzanne Brockmann’s Navy SEAL heroes. Because not only was I an officer in the National Guard (and very proud of my service), but I am myself bisexual, something I can say now only because I’m out of the military. If I’d said it before my separation and someone in my command had noticed it, they would have separated me under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
I recently said on a podcast, “There’s gays in the military already. […] I once had somebody—a soldier—tell me, ‘Well, everybody knows that the military is antipathetic towards gay people so, if you’re gay, why would you want to join an organization that doesn’t want you?’ And I just looked at him and I said, ‘Gay people have the same patriotic feelings and the same nationalistic feelings, and the same desire to serve as anybody else.’ […] They’re not just gay, they’re Americans, and they feel just as strongly about that as you, with your straight privilege over there, and they want to act on that.”
I very much feel this topic is pertinent to the romance world because…well, because it’s about love. GLBT people cannot help who they are or who they love and, in most cases, wouldn’t want to. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to serve, nor should it stop them from serving. If 5-10% of the general population is gay, then about 5% of the military is probably gay as well and should be allowed to serve, just as their straight brothers- and sisters-in-arms do. Because it doesn’t matter who they go home to at night. All that matters is that they get their job done.
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Sarah, thank you for your service.
I served for 8 years in the USAF Security Police and some of the best cops I worked with fell under the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” rule. I didn’t care who they went home to – the only thing that mattered was that they had my back when the pudding hit the fan and they did.
Maybe it is different for admin troops but when bullets are flying you really don’t care what goes on behind closed doors when your team goes home. It is too bad more people can’t get over themselves long enough to get it.
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I wish the rest of the world had this same opinion. It saddens me to realize that in 2010 people are still way too concerned with the personal lives of those around them. We should all be supporting each other and our sexual orientation shouldn’t figure into the equation. We’ve been stationed near an Army base the last few months and I have been truly appalled at some of the things these soldiers have said- ignorant and hateful things. Maybe the military should have a career course about compassion and tolerance- and then enforce it.
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Thanks for your comments, Lisa and Anna. I think what’s so silly about this debate is almost every service member knows that they know a colleague who is GLBT, and they just…don’t care. So why should anyone else?
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I just read an article on military.com about the military clock ticking down toward an end to the ban on gays serving. About time… no pun intended. ;0
http://bit.ly/d34xLX