What are the fundies afraid of?
Dec. 7th, 2005 12:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
varropdxToday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, a case pitting law schools against the Defense Department for the Defense Department's violating many law schools' anti-discrimination policies with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".
The Solomon Amendment bars educational institutions from receiving Federal funding if they do not let military recruiters on campus. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Solomon Amendment violated the law schools' and their students' free speech rights.
What I'd like to know is why the fundies think so little of our troops to think that they'll be weakened by queers in the ranks?
This is 2005, and the United States military is light-years ahead of every other country both in military technology and troop preparation.
That's not enough for the fundies, though. They want the military to be a safe haven for their crabbed view of humanity, and use the tired argument that queer troops will undermine unit cohesion and morale.
Bullshit. The only thing that will be undermined is the fundamentalist beliefs of the individual troops. Many military personnel come from sheltered environments where gays are unknown, except as some foreign evil preached against from the pulpit. Once they realize that the queers in their unit have the same interests as them (completing their missions), and have no interest in making them switch teams, they may think twice about the fundie homophobia drilled into them for years.
This case involves law schools, and the law schools I've been at allow military recruiters on campus, but have a big disclaimer on the military job postings indicating the U.S. military discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation. Just one more thing to be ashamed of in this fundie and neocon-controlled United States.
The Solomon Amendment bars educational institutions from receiving Federal funding if they do not let military recruiters on campus. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Solomon Amendment violated the law schools' and their students' free speech rights.
What I'd like to know is why the fundies think so little of our troops to think that they'll be weakened by queers in the ranks?
This is 2005, and the United States military is light-years ahead of every other country both in military technology and troop preparation.
That's not enough for the fundies, though. They want the military to be a safe haven for their crabbed view of humanity, and use the tired argument that queer troops will undermine unit cohesion and morale.
Bullshit. The only thing that will be undermined is the fundamentalist beliefs of the individual troops. Many military personnel come from sheltered environments where gays are unknown, except as some foreign evil preached against from the pulpit. Once they realize that the queers in their unit have the same interests as them (completing their missions), and have no interest in making them switch teams, they may think twice about the fundie homophobia drilled into them for years.
This case involves law schools, and the law schools I've been at allow military recruiters on campus, but have a big disclaimer on the military job postings indicating the U.S. military discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation. Just one more thing to be ashamed of in this fundie and neocon-controlled United States.
