SPLC INTELLIGENCE=TRUTH REPORT: Myth #7 -- ¨ Allowing homosexuals to serve openly would damage the armed forces.¨

Lt. Colonel Victor Fehrenbach  HERE

SEVENTH MYTH REGARDING GAYS:

¨Allowing homosexuals to serve openly would damage the armed forces.¨

THE ARGUMENT:
 
 ¨Anti-gay groups are adamantly opposed to allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the armed forces, not only because of their purported fear that combat readiness will be undermined, but because the military has long been considered the purest meritocracy in America (the armed forces were successfully racially integrated long before American civilian society, for example). If gays can serve honorably and effectively in this meritocracy, that would suggest that there is no rational basis for discriminating against them in any way.¨
 
THE FACTS:

¨Homosexuals now serve in the U.S. armed forces, though under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy instituted in 1993, they cannot serve openly. At the same time, gays and lesbians serve openly in the armed forces of 25 countries, including Britain, Israel, South Africa, Canada and Australia, according to a report released by the Palm Center, a policy think tank at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The Palm Center report concluded that lifting bans against openly gay service personnel in these countries “ha[s] had no negative impact on morale, recruitment, retention, readiness or overall combat effectiveness.” Successful transitions to new policies were attributed to clear signals of leadership support and a focus on a uniform code of behavior without regard to sexual orientation.

A 2008 Military Times poll of active-duty military personnel, often cited by anti-gay activists, found that 10% of respondents said they would not re-enlist if the DADT policy were repealed. That would mean some 228,000 people might leave the military in that instance. But a 2009 review of that poll by the Palm Center suggested a wide disparity between what soldiers said they would do and their actual actions. It noted, for example, that far more than 10% of West Point officers in the 1970s said they would leave the service if women were admitted to the academy. “But when the integration became a reality,” the report said, “there was no mass exodus; the opinions turned out to be just opinions.” Similarly, a 1985 survey of 6,500 male Canadian service members and a 1996 survey of 13,500 British service members each revealed that nearly two-thirds expressed strong reservations about serving with gays. Yet when those countries lifted bans on gays serving openly, virtually no one left the service for that reason. “None of the dire predictions of doom came true,” the Palm Center report said.¨  HERE

¨Ever since born-again singer and orange juice pitchwoman Anita Bryant helped kick off the contemporary anti-gay movement more than 30 years ago, hard-line elements of the religious right have been searching for ways to demonize homosexuals — or, at a minimum, to find arguments that will prevent their normalization in society. For the former Florida beauty queen and her Save Our Children group, it was the alleged plans of gays and lesbians to “recruit” in schools that provided the fodder for their crusade. But in addition to hawking that myth, the legions of anti-gay activists who followed have added a panoply of others, ranging from the extremely doubtful claim that homosexuality is a choice, to unalloyed lies like the claims that gays molest children far more than heterosexuals or that hate crime laws will lead to the legalization of bestiality and necrophilia. These fairy tales are important to the anti-gay right because they form the basis of its claim that homosexuality is a social evil that must be suppressed — an opinion rejected by virtually all relevant medical and scientific authorities. They also almost certainly contribute to hate crime violence directed at homosexuals, who are more targeted for such attacks than any other minority in America.¨

Most days throughout this Holiday Season 2010 my blog will present you and yours with the GIFT OF TRUTH AND REAL FACT regarding 10 key myths propagated by the anti-gay movement, along with the truth behind the propaganda. Truth is a big gift and we give thanks to our blog-world-associates Evelyn Schlatter and Robert Steinback. Leonardo Ricardo HERE

· Thanks to Evelyn Schlatter and Robert Steinback
· Thanks to The Child Molestation Research and Prevention Institute
· Thanks to SPLC INTELLIGENCE REPORT/AlterNet
· Thanks to Flickr Photosharing, Moonjazz
· Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker  HERE
· Thanks to Professor Gregory Herek, University of California, Davis
· Thanks to The American Academy of Pediatrics
· Thanks to The American Psychological Association
· Thanks to The American Psychiatric Association
· Thanks to The Child Welfare League of America
· Thanks to A Christian Voice for Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Transgender, sidebar
· Thanks to National Organization on Male Sexual Victimization
· Thanks to Christine Mueller, professor of history at Reed College
· Thanks to Historian Jon David Wynecken
· Thanks to Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act
· Thanks to The Palm Center, University of California at Santa Barbra
· Thanks to Lt. Colonel Victor Fehrenbach