Shameful, yet not surprising.

I'm wondering: are there statistics out there on the number of gay men and lesbians who'd volunteer for military or national guard service if out gay men and lesbians met the military's "moral standards"? Just wondering...

Yeah, they "accidentally" advertised themselves on that gay site. Sounds like the military was lonely and looking for a little gay action and got caught red-handed.

That's actually funny.

There's no way they can allow gays in the military - especially in Iraq. If they had gays in the military we'd see things like Iraqis being paraded around naked like dogs, being forced to simulate gay sex for their cameras, etc.

Well, an army has to have standards. I mean, if you're a man and you like sucking cock, how will you know if it is right to annihalate a bunch of Iraqis

Reminds me of the Arlo Guthrie song, Alice's Restaurant.

(paraphrasing) "You want to know if I'm moral enough to burn villages, women & children after being a litterbug?"

That's Maj. Michael "wide-stance" Baptista.

James @1,

I don't know of any specific statistics, but yes, of course there are lots of homos that would serve, if allowed to.

I'm an unapologetic homo. I'm also an unapologetic veteran. I served 8 years in the military. Despite a rabidly homophobic environment, despite "don't ask, don't tell", despite a terribly unpopular war/occupation, homos still make up nearly 10% of the military.

Just think of how many of us would serve if, you know, we were actually allowed to openly.

who cares where we get our cannon fodder? felons sounds fine to me. maybe we should sign up child molesters & rapist & put them in the iraqi meat grinder. war is murder & too crude of an effort to waste gay men on.

May Allah protect the little girls of Iraq from the psychopathic killers and rapists of "America's Finest."

In the 60s judges offered many young thugs the option of jail time or entering the military. My Marine friend said several of these went through basic training with him.

Recruiters signed up people who had committed such felonies as arson, burglary, aggravated assault, breaking and entering and driving while intoxicated.

*coughcannonfoddercough*

@8:

The only difficulty I see with this is: how do we keep felons, burglars, arsonists, drunk drivers, child molestors et al from getting OUT of the military once they've been recruited?

The danger of all this is, they're learning how to create mayhem far more effectively.

the cynic in me says that if we're just going to use these young men and women as cannon fodder anyways I'd rather get rid of a few arsonists and burgalars and hang on to the educated and stable gay folks- perhaps thereby increasing their percentage share of the population at large and hurrying along the inevitable broadening of the collective minds of the masses... but that's just me...

The main problem I see with the whole cannon fodder thing is for the unsuspecting Iraqi population WE'RE TURNING THEM LOOSE ON.

I've been haunted by this comment that I read recently on Jezebel in regards to dating manly men:

BY NOTAKEBACKS AT 10/05/07 04:20 PM
"My ex-boyfriend is in the Marine Corps and had more testosterone in his pinky than any man I have ever met. I don't know if this is why, but it has to be noted that he also had an absolutely huge penis. As in, it was sometimes difficult to have sex with him. Before he went to Iraq, he was the biggest hoo-rah anyone had ever met. When he came back, some nights he would wake up crying and others he would wake up screaming as if he were still in the middle of an attack zone. It was really one of the saddest things."

OK, this is why we have to keep DADT in place. It's about the only legal exit strategy that some of these young men and women have or they could end up like that dude.

I've read that as many as 40,000 healthy young gay men and lesbians would join the armed forces if DADT were repealed. Keeping the ban in place saves their lives and prevents them from becoming accomplices to our country's lies and war crimes.

Even if DADT is repealed, I can't imagine why out gays and lesbians would want to join up. Just look at how female service members are treated in that macho environment. Scary.

@ 16, Why can't I meet a nice Marine with a penis so big it's sometimes difficult to have sex with?

monkey @ 18,

Be careful what you wish for...

Also, check out The Cuff on military night : )

Keshmishi @17,

If allowed to, I may very well have stayed in the military. Despite the unpopularity of our current war/occupation, I still believe there is honor in serving in the military. Despite a few jackass homophobes, some of us are still called to serve by a sense of duty to this country. Despite Bush's attempts to gut it, some of us still believe in defending the constitution, and military service is one way to do so.

I'm not saying that the military is right for everyone. I don't believe in the draft. There are other ways that people can chose if they feel they want to give back to our country and don't want to serve in the military.

Please don't confuse a distaste for this war or this president with a distaste for honorable military service.

A few clarifications on this, because I actually know someone who works at Community Connect, which is the company that produces GLEE.

1) I suspect that they did, in fact, mistakenly advertise on the site. Seriously. The same company that produces GLEE also produces BlackPlanet.com, AsianAve.com, and MiGente.com, all of which are targeted social networking sites (for, respectively, homosexuals, african americans, asians, and latinos). They all have the same site design- just visit any of the sites and compare it to GLEE: they're all the exact same template. I have a suspicion that the military either bought straight off of a list of community networking sites, bought an ad through communityconnect that was desplayed on all of them, or something similar.

2) Random side note: unlike the other CC sites, GLEE lacks a pay-for dating component. That's not a "morals" thing at all: apparently marketing data suggested that there was a bigger niche for a social/business networking only site for its target demographic than there was for a site that featured dating.

They have military nights at a gay bar? Does Peter Pace know about this?

Mike in MO @ 22,

Of course! It's called "Boots and Buzz Cuts" night. From what I understand, most of the guys are ex-military, though gay bars down in Tacoma, closer to Fort Lewis, are apparently more popular with the active duty crowd.

And then there's Bremerton, the Naval base, which may not have any gay bars, but it's well known that you can always pick up the phone and order the "meat lover's special" *wink*wink*.

@20,

OK, fair enough. I'm just saying that, if I were gay and in the military, I'm not sure that I would be able to trust my fellow service members 100 percent. Of course, I've never served, so I don't actually know.

keshmeshi @ 24,

It really begs the question, doesn't it?

Why would a GLBT person want to serve a right-wing country like the US that hates us, denies us equal rights and wants to destroy us?

Signing up criminals ... perhaps this is the US government's way of dealing with those overcrowded prisons we've been hearing about?

@ 8, 12, and 15:
The problem with using felons as cannon fodder is that some of them will survive the war and live to steal armaments and sell them on the street. There is already real and very frightening problem with right-wing extemists in the armed forces stealing arms like grenades and rocket launchers to supply militias.