‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ under scrutiny at GBHS

In a politically divided country, one smaller-scale
topic seems to catch everyone’s ear: a possible repeal of
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, a military code banning openly
gay citizens from enlisting.
Student and public opinion on the issue has been
widely varied, with mass polls offering no clear results.
But for students like senior Erin Burrel, the results
of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell debate may affect the men
and women she could soon serve beside.
She said that she has been considering joining the
military after graduation to gain experience before
entering the workforce.
“I fully believe that if (soldiers are) gay, who cares?”
Burrel said. “It shouldn’t really matter. If they’re willing
to serve their country, why should it matter?”
Repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell would help the public
to realize how little sexual orientation matters when it
comes to enlistment, Burrel said.
Tim Dover, a senior planning on joining the Navy,
disagreed.
“If you’re going to be (gay), you (have) to be willing
to get kicked out of the army,” Dover said.
Dover said he believes if Obama’s efforts to repeal the
bill are successful, recruitment numbers will drop.
“(Obama will) lose a lot of good men … just because
of that one policy,” Dover said.
Loren Cherry, GBHS senior and Gay Straight Alliance
president, took the opposite stance. She said
she believes everyone should be able to serve in the
military.
But Cherry was less optimistic about Don’t Ask Don’t
Tell being successfully repealed.
“I’m hesitant to be optimistic, because I really doubt
that (voters) will make a huge impact,” Cherry said. “I
think a lot of people are still really homophobic. I don’t
think (the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell debate) has been very
well publicized. I don’t think that many (young voters)
will go out and vote (on the issue). It tends to be bigger
things that they go out and vote for.”
Tim Healy, a GBHS social studies teacher, has a unique
perspective on the issue of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Still enlisted in the Air Force
Reserves, he said that he
sees the military as a crosssection
of society, with every
unit representative of an
individual community.
“Some communities are
open (and) accepting of all
people, regardless of orientation,
and other communities
are prejudicial to people
of alternative lifestyles,”
Healy said. “The idea that
the President mandates (tolerance)
isn’t necessarily
going to change people’s
beliefs.”
Healy said that, in his
experience, most military
personnel place more emphasis
on a person’s character
than his or her sexual
preference.
“You could certainly make
the argument that, in the
military, if a person’s sexual
orientation was disrupting
the unit, then there’s probably
concern,” Healy said, in
response to the fear of disrupting
unit cohesion by revoking
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
“But maybe the greater
concern is why someone
is so prejudiced that it was
affecting their behavior and
the (morale) of their unit.”
Tino Guzman, a GBHS
English teacher who served
in the Marines, said that
integration would be different
for every branch of the
military.
“In … the Marines, … they
tend to be more antagonistic
towards homosexuals,
even though, ironically, we
know there (are) gays in
those units,” Guzman said.
“We know this (through)
statistics.”
However, there would be
less difficulty in adjusting
to the presence of open homosexual
servicemen and
women in mixed gender
units, Guzman said. Personally,
Guzman said that he
doesn’t support Don’t Ask
Don’t Tell.
“It is not the government’s
duty to reach into people’s
lives (whether they work for
the government or not) and
suppress their identities,”
Guzman said. “Don’t we
have bigger tasks at hand?”