Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell No More

I am all for repetitive drills because that helps whatever the action is being practiced become second nature. For members of the Armed Serviced, repeat training means an innate ability to survive.

Training to survive in combat situations, training to steer a battleship, training to fly an F-14 fighter jet and even training to run a state-of-the-art hospital are all things that repeat training helps.

However, the Marines are now getting some new training. It isn’t for combat. It is not for being part of the rifle drill team and it is not even as a member of the Marine Corp band.

The training goes something like this: A Marine spots two of his battalion mates kissing while off-duty. Instead of it being a man and a woman, it is two men.

Another scenario is a Marine is watching television and sees a fellow male Marine dressed as a civilian marching in a Gay Pride parade. All of these scenarios are to help Marines accept these actions are rights of expression.

This is not a joke.

Marine training facilities across the nation are prescribing to these training methods to help prepare members to accept openly gay fellow service members. This new training ends a 17-year policy typically known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Additional training for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines began earlier this year and should run through the summer.

I am not an advocate for “don’t ask, don’t tell” because I don’t think the government should be able to tell anyone what to say or how to act as long as the behavior is within the bounds of the law. If someone is gay, that person shouldn’t be victimized.

However, I think it is ridiculous to go through training on how to react to a fellow service member being at a gay bar. Are tax dollars really being spent wisely here?

It is bizarre to me that soldiers have to go through this training and then turn around and train to fight in a war: Be sensitive but toughen up.

If a straight man doesn’t want to shower with a gay man, isn’t that his prerogative? However, now, that is being called insensitive. As a woman, I would not want to shower with men. Isn’t that along the same lines?

While the United States is busy training to fight in three wars, the level of importance of practicing reactions to seeing two men kiss seems ludicrous.

Staci Dennis lives in Norfolk, VA, is married to Eric, who is awesome, and has a fat cat and two cute Puggles. She has been published in various newspapers and magazines across the nation, and worked as a reporter for 12 years. She is a contributor for Nexxt, realestatejobsite.com and educationjobsiteblogs.com.