男女羞羞视频在线观看,国产精品黄色免费,麻豆91在线视频,美女被羞羞免费软件下载,国产的一级片,亚洲熟色妇,天天操夜夜摸,一区二区三区在线电影
  Home>News Center>Life
         
 

Gay US soldier wants to serve openly
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-08 11:51

An Army sergeant who was wounded in Iraq wants a chance to remain in the military as an openly gay soldier, a desire that's bringing him into conflict with the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.


Undated photo provided by Army Sgt. Robert Stout showing Stout with his Purple Heart and Certificate. Stout, a decorated officer who was wounded in Iraq is campaigning for the chance to serve as an openly gay soldier in the military, a cause that has attracted the attention of gay advocates and once again put the issue on the government's doorstep. Stout, 23, says he would re-enlist in the military if it wasn't for the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy, which permits gay men and women to serve in the armed forces if they keep their sexual orientation to themselves and abstain from homosexual activity. [AP]

Sgt. Robert Stout, 23, says he has not encountered trouble from fellow soldiers and would like to stay if not for the policy that permits gay men and women to serve only if they keep their sexual orientation a secret.

"I know a ton of gay men that would be more than willing to stay in the Army if they could just be open," Stout said in an interview with The Associated Press. "But if we have to stay here and hide our lives all the time, it's just not worth it."

Stout, of Utica, Ohio, was awarded the Purple Heart after a grenade sent pieces of shrapnel into his arm, face and legs while he was operating a machine gun on an armored Humvee last May. 

He is believed to be the first gay soldier wounded in Iraq to publicly discuss his sexuality, said Aaron Belkin, director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California-Santa Barbara.

"We can't keep hiding the fact that there's gay people in the military and they aren't causing any harm," said Stout, who says he is openly gay among most of his 26-member platoon, which is part of the 9th Engineer Battalion based in Schweinfurt, Germany.

Stout, who served in Iraq for more than a year as a combat engineer, said by acknowledging he is gay, he could be jailed and probably will be discharged before his scheduled release date of May 31.

"The old armchair thought that gay people destroy unit camaraderie and cohesion is just wrong," Stout said. "They said the same things when they tried to integrate African-Americans and women into the military."

Before the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, enacted in 1993 under the Clinton administration, the Pentagon had explicitly barred gays from military service. At least 24 countries, including Great Britain, Germany, France, Australia, Canada and Israel, allow gays to serve openly.

In an e-mail following the AP interview, Stout said he had been ordered not to speak to the media. "I guess they found out somehow that I was talking to the press and now they are having a fit. I will try to get everything straightened out," Stout wrote.

Martha Rudd, a spokeswoman for the Army at the Pentagon, said soldiers who are discharged under "don't ask, don't tell" typically receive honorable discharges, although the timing would be up to the individual's commanding officer. She declined to comment about Stout, saying the Army doesn't comment on specific cases.

The issue of whether gays should be allowed to openly serve in the military has received increased attention in recent months as the Army has struggled to meet its recruiting goals. Twelve gays expelled from the military sued the government in December, citing a Supreme Court ruling that declared unconstitutional state laws against homosexual sex.

The Bush administration has asked a federal court to dismiss the lawsuit.

Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey has said he opposes changing the policy, although Pentagon figures show a sharp decline in the number of U.S. military members discharged for making it known they are homosexual, falling from 1,227 in 2001 to 653 last year.

A recent congressional study on the impact of "don't ask, don't tell" said that hundreds of highly skilled troops, including many translators, have left the armed forces because of the rule, at a cost of nearly $200 million, mostly for recruiting and training replacements for 9,500 troops discharged between 1994 and 2003.

Gary Gates, a statistician at the University of California at Los Angeles, estimates there are about 65,000 gays and lesbians currently serving in the military, accounting for about 2.8 percent of all personnel. He estimates that at least 25 gay soldiers have been killed in Iraq.

Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, a conservative advocacy group that opposes gays serving in the military, said a better way to avoid the cost of replacing soldiers who are discharged for being gay is to make it very clear to people who enlist in the military, including Stout, that they are ineligible to serve if they are gay.

"I honor and respect his service to this country, but the fact that he's wounded really doesn't change the underlying fact. ... He is not eligible to serve," Donnelly said, adding that there are many reasons why people aren't eligible to serve. "This is just one of them."

Stout said he suspected while in high school that he was gay but didn't acknowledge it until later. "Then I noticed that it wasn't a phase or anything. This is me," said Stout, who enlisted in the Army after graduating in 2000.

"The 'don't ask, don't tell' policy, when it first came out, was a good stepping stone, but it's outlived its usefulness," he said. "We've progressed past it both as a military and as a society."

Recent media polls indicate some increased public acceptance for allowing gays to serve openly in the military, with more than six in 10 Americans supporting the idea while about half supported it a decade ago. An Annenberg poll taken last fall among members of the military showed a majority opposed to such service, though half of junior enlisted personnel said gays should be allowed to serve openly.



Has the deceased Pope been embalmed?
Cameron Diaz takes a tumble
Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton boozing again
  Today's Top News     Top Life News
 

FM rebuts US threat of economic sanctions

 

   
 

Poll: American views on China improving

 

   
 

EU guide on textiles 'violates WTO rule'

 

   
 

Tough task ahead to curb speculation

 

   
 

Boeing says insulation blankets 'no problem'

 

   
 

Beijing to see electricity price hike

 

   
  Gay US soldier wants to serve openly
   
  Jackson performs oral sex on boy: Guard
   
  Paralyzed panda in good care
   
  Jay Chow, DaoLang compete for media nods
   
  Body in 'wife murder' case to be exhumed
   
  Charles and Camilla form royal 'Brady Bunch' family
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Feature  
  1/3 Chinese youth condone premarital sex  
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 福鼎市| 阿瓦提县| 海兴县| 包头市| 保山市| 西畴县| 乌拉特前旗| 四会市| 恭城| 祥云县| 株洲县| 临安市| 玉门市| 灯塔市| 清水县| 九寨沟县| 广汉市| 乌拉特中旗| 五大连池市| 平乐县| 楚雄市| 南丹县| 南涧| 香港| 焉耆| 邛崃市| 南宫市| 大名县| 祁连县| 烟台市| 乳山市| 堆龙德庆县| 苏尼特左旗| 延边| 射阳县| 道真| 洪泽县| 浙江省| 滨州市| 庆阳市| 佛山市| 长岛县| 社旗县| 金乡县| 富阳市| 桦南县| 泸水县| 金川县| 石台县| 台东县| 黑河市| 乌拉特后旗| 礼泉县| 德惠市| 元阳县| 鄂温| 高尔夫| 长治市| 资兴市| 潼南县| 保定市| 宜春市| 庆安县| 阿勒泰市| 会理县| 龙口市| 刚察县| 滕州市| 浙江省| 和田市| 忻州市| 桂平市| 呼玛县| 扶沟县| 资中县| 康马县| 溧阳市| 横峰县| 长海县| 彭阳县| 自贡市| 偃师市|