It is hard for a man or women to get undressed in front of someone of the same sex who may be looking at them with different eyes. When I say different eyes I mean a man looking at a man and thinking, “Wow he’s cute,” or a women looking at a women and thinking the same thing. It would be very awkward for non-gay soldiers to deal with this problem.
Another thing that a gay recruit may not realize is the prejudice that has already been set before them by soldiers that are already in the military. To change the minds of so many people, especially soldiers, would be near impossible. Gays are walking into not only a warpath between countries, but a civil warpath between straights and gays. For example, Joe Steffan was kicked out of Annapolis one week before graduation after revealing he was gay. Alan Schindler, another a gay man in the Navy was brutally murdered when some of his shipmates found out he was gay. Why would somebody set themselves up for such things? The answer is beyond me.
If gays want to serve in the military, then they should at least request a separate gay or lesbian living quarters. This would make straight soldiers feel more comfortable and give them the ability to focus on their job. The downside of this is that due to there already being prejudice against gays in the military, they would be easier targets since they would all be living within the same quarters. I mean, if gays and straights already live in the same quarters, this is no different from men and women living in the same quarters, and we all know that is not going to happen in the military. If we want to keep gays safe, they need to stay out of the military completely so they are out of harm’s way. I don’t see any arguments about that, it seems that the separation of men and women has become such an integral part of our society that we have come to take as a norm.
Gays have already been given the opportunity to serve in the military. The only thing that is asked of them is to “not tell” anybody that they are gay. This is only for their personal protection and doesn’t serve as any type of governmental prejudice as some gays might say. The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy is a good policy that protects any gays that are already in the military. I don’t want to know if they are gay and I don’t think they want to know what I think about them, so why do they care?