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Donovan,<br><br>This might have been good for a chuckle the first time you sent it, but after receiving the 4th consecutive identical email all with the identical punchlines, it's now just annoying.<br><br>-Scott<br><br><hr id="stopSpelling">Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 01:01:12 -0800<br>From: donovanjarnold2005@yahoo.com<br>To: vision2020@moscow.com; chasuk@gmail.com<br>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] gays in the Military<br><br><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; -x-system-font: none;" valign="top"><div>Wow! I didn't know there was a Dutch army.</div>
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<div>Best Regards,</div>
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<div>Donovan<br><br>--- On <b>Sun, 11/9/08, Chasuk <i><chasuk@gmail.com></i></b> wrote:<br></div>
<blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px;">From: Chasuk <chasuk@gmail.com><br>Subject: [Vision2020] gays in the Military<br>To: "Vision2020" <vision2020@moscow.com><br>Date: Sunday, November 9, 2008, 12:53 AM<br><br><pre>http://www.radionetherlands.nl/thestatewerein/otherstates/081107-gays-military<br><br>The Open Soldier<br><br>Major Peter Kees Hamstra has been in the Dutch army for almost thirty<br>years and for two thirds of that time he's been openly gay. In 1974<br>the Dutch armed forces was the first in the world to make it possible<br>to serve and to be openly homosexual and since that time just a<br>handful of other countries have followed suit.<br><br>Major Hamstra is now the chairman of the organization for<br>homosexuality in the Dutch services. "My sexuality is not an issue,"<br>he says. And, in fact, if someone was being openly discriminatory<br>towards him they stand the chance of being disciplined or even<br>dismissed.<br><br>In fact, Major Hamstra is the archetypal modern Dutch gay man. He's a<br>respected army officer, married (to a man of course as the Netherlands<br>was also the first country to legalise same sex marriages) and who is<br>not afraid to take his partner to official army functions.<br><br>He comes in to the Hilversum studio slightly out of breath, as he lost<br>his way in the car and was nervous about being late but when it's all<br>over and after saying how much he enjoyed the interview he says he<br>must leave promptly - he must collect his daughter from her school.<br><br>However, there are occasional problems. When serving abroad in Bosnia<br>and Iraq he was forced to close the closet door shut once again. Not<br>from his Dutch colleagues but from his peace-keeping allies. The<br>Netherlands has always been a pioneering country for equal rights but<br>that doesn't mean to say it rubs off on others.<br><br>The Closeted Soldier<br><br>When I first spoke to Marco on the phone to organize our meeting, he<br>sounded perfectly at ease with the idea of being interviewed. He said<br>he enjoyed speaking English and was looking forward to meeting me and<br>telling me more about their fledgling association, Polis Aperta. We<br>arranged to meet at 5.30pm in front of Ferrara station. He'd pick me<br>up in his car and we'd do the interview in his apartment. "You'll<br>spot<br>me easily," I told him, "I'm short, have long red hair and look<br>unmistakeably English". "You'll spot me easily too," he<br>laughed, "I'll<br>be coming straight from work so I'll still be wearing my uniform."<br>Needless to say, we had no problem finding each other and I was<br>confident everything else would go as I'd anticipated. But during the<br>short journey from the station to Marco's flat, he made two requests<br>that took me completely by surprise.<br><br>The first was that I should only use his first name and the second was<br>that I should describe him as 'working in the military', without<br>mentioning which of the armed forces he is a member of. "Ferrara's a<br>small town and there aren't many English speakers in the forces. I'd<br>be too easily identified." I was shocked at the unexpected revelation,<br>"You mean you aren't out?"<br><br>"Absolutely not." This revelation and my shock are, I think, the<br>essence of this issue and the need in contemporary Italy for an<br>association like Polis Aperta. Marco struck me as somebody who was<br>happy to talk about his sexuality, unashamed for me to know he was<br>gay, proud to be part of this anti-discrimination campaign... yet, in<br>the military context, things couldn't be more different.<br><br>Here was a man in his mid-thirties who had spent 15 years doing a job<br>he really enjoyed, but a job in which he still felt the need to hide a<br>fundamental aspect of his identity. His worry that I might<br>unintentionally out him, thereby jeopardizing his career, made me<br>realise just how far behind other countries Italy is when it comes to<br>gay rights in the armed forces. I wouldn't say Italy is any more or<br>less homophobic than other European countries. In most professions<br>here, the right to be gay is taken for granted. In the police and the<br>military it is not.<br><br>Although there is no rule in Italy that explicitly bans homosexuals<br>from joining the forces, there is a loophole in an old recruitment law<br>about one's 'psychological stability relating to sexual<br>orientation'.<br>Marco says that new recruits who openly reveal they are gay will<br>almost certainly be rejected on these grounds, no matter how at ease<br>they may be with their sexuality.<br><br>If you are already in the forces and are lucky enough to have an<br>open-minded superior and colleagues, coming out need not be an issue,<br>but discrimination is arbitrary and there is no unit or union to<br>protect you against it. Covert discrimination might entail you being<br>given the worst tasks, randomly transferred or even denied<br>promotion... but never ostensibly because of your homosexuality. With<br>no sexual discrimination laws to protect gay members of the armed<br>forces, Polis Aperta was born of a genuine feeling of necessity.<br><br>The association began as an on-line forum back in 2005 - a way for<br>people like Marco to vent their frustration and help each other deal<br>with discrimination issues based on sexual orientation. The name Polis<br>Aperta can be translated as "Open City". Their aim is to achieve<br>this.<br>They say that being gay in many European forces is not just a right<br>but a bonus.<br><br>Being the best English speaker of the association, Marco usually<br>represents Polis Aperta at international meetings of gay/lesbian<br>police and military associations. In his experience, many countries<br>now make positive practical use of gay members of their forces,<br>getting them to train heterosexual officers in how to deal with<br>homophobic hate crime.<br><br>He'd like to see the same approach in Italy, though he thinks<br>achieving it will be a long process. But if Polis Aperta is recognized<br>by the government and given legal status as an anti-discrimination<br>association, Marco believes the first major bridge will have been<br>crossed. "When we feel confident that we can come out without putting<br>our careers at risk and know there is someone who'll fight for us and<br>defend us if necessary, then I guess things will really change."<br><br>The Retired Soldier<br><br>Lieutenant Colonel Robert Maginnis may have retired from the US army<br>in 1993 but in the intervening years he's made good use of his<br>military experience. He's now an expert on national security and<br>foreign affairs. He has also been the vice- president of the Family<br>Research Council, an organisation espousing what it sees as<br>quintessentially American values centred on family life.<br><br>One of his more controversial roles is speaking out against<br>homosexuality in the US military. He favours a complete ban. The armed<br>forces in the US currently has a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy<br>which<br>states that gay servicemen and women can serve but they cannot be<br>open. It's a compromise that's been in place for the past 15 years and<br>which seems to satisfy very few people. It's already led to 12500<br>people being discharged.<br><br>Mr. Maginnis was part of a study group that looked at unit cohesion,<br>morale and the combat effectiveness of the military if homosexuals<br>were admitted. His conclusion was that, in tight groups in which trust<br>is paramount, the inclusion of homosexuals can have an adverse affect.<br>The military is all about the 'we' he says and not about individuals.<br>This is why, during training, individuality is drummed out of<br>recruits. "It's all about a teamed effort to accomplish a<br>mission." he<br>says. "When a preference as an individual trumps the preference of<br>others in the team then that undermines the trust and cohesion that is<br>so key." Wearing one's sexuality on one's collar, he believes is<br>not<br>looking out for the best interests of the team.<br><br>It's a charge that is vehemently discounted by others as just being an<br>argument that people use to put homosexuality in a bad light but Bob<br>Maginnis is sticking to his guns and if a new US administration<br>attempts to legalise homosexuality they'll have a fight on their<br>hands.<br><br>The Discharged Soldier<br><br>Towards the end of last year army sergeant Darren Manzella thought he<br>had it all. He'd been promoted a number of times and was fast tracking<br>in the US medical corps. He was also open about his homosexuality and<br>was still serving. He thought it was a pioneering step towards getting<br>rid of the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. Then he agreed to<br>being<br>interviewed for a television programme. Within weeks he was dismissed.<br><br>Darren is now working for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network in<br>Washington D.C. and is only too willing to talk about his story of<br>discrimination and hatred.<br><br>"It's all confusing to me", he says. "It's hard to look<br>at a record<br>and say you've done amazing things and you're an asset to the military<br>but because of who you are you can no longer stay in the military."<br><br>He joined the medical corps for patriotic reasons after 9-11 and on<br>his first deployment patrolled the streets of Baghdad with bombs going<br>off around him, snipers shooting at him and mortars and rockets<br>hitting his base. He saw many people die and suffer horrible injuries.<br>It was for this reason that, on his return, he decided to tell his<br>friends and family about his sexuality. "That could have been me," he<br>says. "That could have been me that didn't return and my family<br>wouldn't have known this important thing about me."<br><br>He told his commander after he started receiving anonymous e-mails and<br>phone calls threatening him with exposure. The stress was enormous he<br>says and he wanted to tell his commander in person before he found out<br>from another source.<br><br>And then the surprise. An enquiry concluded that there was nothing to<br>answer and he could stay in his job. It was at this time that he found<br>others he could confide in. They were from all branches and all ranks<br>of the US military. Perhaps it gave him too big a sense of security<br>because when the sixty minute television programme approached him for<br>an interview, he decided to speak out. It cost him his profession.<br><br>It's estimated that around 65000 men and women are still in the US<br>military struggling to keep their identity a secret.<br><br>=======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br> http://www.fsr.net <br> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>=======================================================<br></pre></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table><br><br /><hr />Get 5 GB of storage with Windows Live Hotmail. <a href='http://windowslive.com/Explore/Hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_5gb_112008' target='_new'>Sign up today.</a></body>
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