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Originally Posted by mojopinuk
Right yeah, so it's outdated then. I was under the impression that it was initially intended to be a positive policy but I had no idea how long it had been in effect. I guess it was positive initially as it meant that gay people could serve in the military but there are still certain circumstances where they can discharged for being gay, arent there?
I have often wondered how those who have served in the military feel about this. It's good to see crash's take on things.
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Well when I was in basic training, my bunkmate was able to get out by claiming he was gay. He told me he planned to and I was called in to the drill-sergeant's office to corroborate the story, which I did.
Discharge for that is "other than honorable" I believe, which isn't a bad thing at all... and some people who can't handle the military are able to successfully use this as an escape mechanism.
You can't just decide you want out of the military and in most scenarios your only way out is to act a fool and end up getting kicked out with a dishonorable discharge, and that will follow you all your life.
So in that sense, the gay thing is a good thing. While most would say "don't join if you don't can't handle it", you don't know your limits until you're pushed to them, and you don't know how you'll handle it. Minimum contract in the Army is 3-6 years depending on your MOS, and that can be a long time for someone to be utterly miserable.
Anyway, another aspect to DODT is that while it doesn't seem relevant now days in a general social aspect, there are still a lot of people that aren't comfortable with homosexuality. Given the nature of the military and the fact that in a lot of situations, you're in a position to be bunking, showering, and even sharing a room with a member of the same gender (even well after basic training) the DODT considerations made are based on unit cohesion and welfare of the troops. It may seem like bigotry at first glance, but regardless of any member's personal distaste for homosexuals, the fact remains that if a unit can't operate like a team and trust each other on and off the battlefield, the mission itself is at stake.
While there are any number of solutions, the most amicable one, while keeping military goals in mind, was DODT and that's why it was implemented.