@ehBeth,
ehBeth wrote:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/100202/dont-ask-dont-tell
Quote:There are about 30 countries in the world, including nearly all of the NATO members, as well as South Africa, Brazil and the Philippines, that allow gay and lesbian servicemen and women in the military, according to Aaron Belkin, a political science professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“In just about all of these countries there is research and anecdotal evidence that illustrates there is no problem, no decrease in cohesion among units, nor a diminishing effectiveness of the troops,” said Belkin, an expert in the area of civil-military relations whose research has been published in the military publications "International Security" and "Armed Forces and Society."
In 2000, Belkin co-authored an exhaustive 44-page study on Canada, which, after a series of lawsuits in 1991, changed its policies to allow gays to openly serve in the military. Belkin’s study, which at the time was regarded as the most comprehensive academic study of homosexuality in a foreign military ever completed, concluded that the change in policy had “not led to any change in military performance, unit cohesion, or discipline.”
44 pages is exhaustive?
hmmmm, well it is about Canada
Maybe that required an emoticon, but I'm not Canadian so not to worry.
Not a bad idea and it could save time if it actually provides
best practices rather than simply citing statistics for 44 pages and concludes
there is no problem.
Still, given the risk it might be prudent to implement based on our own experiences than those of another army. In any case I don't think the US military, rightly or wrongly, is likely to accept the Canadian or Brazilian manual on this.
I'm not stumping for phased implementation, just for an acknowledgment that there could be problems and a reasoned plan to address them.
(I would also like a little less of bigot branding, but not much of a chance of that)
