Gays Under Fire: Military Discrimination On Sexual Orientation

4 Pages 981 Words

Gays in our local society, as established by the strong influence of mass media, are pictured as males who “publicly [wears] outlandish female clothes, [puts] on makeup fit for circus clowns, or [engages] in activities that make fools of themselves” (Palabrica 9). Because of this kind of portrayal by mass media, people tend to develop a generalized negative impression on gays and think of them as “emotionally or psychologically unstable” (Palabrica 9), which leads them to be discriminated in the society. Because of this, pro-gay organizations have stood up to fight for their rights to be treated equally, to earn the respect they truly deserve rather than to be treated as outlandish creatures. Various issues have emerged regarding their rights and one of which is the acceptance of openly gay soldiers in the military.
Historically, warfare has been taken care of by males. Throughout the years, the image of a warrior or a soldier is that of “a very masculine, brave and aggressive person [...], the epitome of [...] machismo” (Barile 56). This image of a soldier makes us think that the military is just for men. But this men-dominated career eventually accepted women into military services. Now, the military is technically open to all but since gays evolved in our society, the issue of the acceptance of gays in the military took its own limelight.
In the 1950’s, Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military of the U.S. Army was a policy imposed on homosexuals not allowing them to serve in the military because they are considered to be security risks at the time when the spread of Communism was at peak. That was the case not until 1992 when President-elect Clinton planned to lift the homosexual ban because he believes that “homosexual men and women [...] should not be prevented from serving their country based solely on their sexual orientation.” In 1993, Clinton’s plan of lifting the ban met up with strong resistance fr...