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It’s A-ok
to be ‘sexually different’ in the US armed forces. Gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender service personnel have the same legal rights as their heterosexual
colleagues. At the end of last year, President Barack Obama ended the ‘Don’t
ask, don’t tell’ policy, rolled out by Bill Clinton in 1993. The policy
prohibited military personnel from discriminating against their homosexual
colleagues, but also barred gay servicemen and women from being open about
their sexuality.
The Dutch
Homosexuality & the Armed Forces Foundation (SHK) has been advising the US
Pentagon on how to implement the new policy. Evidently the US military sets
some store by Dutch experience - The Hague stopped banning gays from the armed
forces way back in 1974.
Dutch
openness
Major Peter
Kees Hamstra from the SHK welcomes the new US policy. He says homosexuals, at
least in The Netherlands, are generally willing to consider a career in the
armed forces. “Openness about sexual preference is not necessarily going to
make things easy right away, but in the long run it will make their acceptance
a lot easier.” Major Hamstra says that one of the most important things is to
show that management backs this openness 100 percent. “And yes, there will be
incidents during the first period of change, but eventually everybody will get
used to the fact that people are open about their sexuality.”
Sexual
revolution
In 1974, in
the wake of the 1960s sexual revolution, the Dutch defence ministry decided to
lift the ban on gays in the military. This made the Dutch armed forces the
first in the world to accept openly homosexual personnel. According to Major
Hamstra the percentages of open gays and those ‘in the closet’ in the military
are roughly the same as in the civilian world. “Generally, it’s pretty safe to
be gay in our armed forces. There’s almost no open discrimination. Those guilty
of it can easily be sacked.” However there are some problems:
“Combat
units are usually made up of young straight white males. Studies show that
within these groups acceptance of homosexuality is still an issue. And when it
comes to transgender people, it’s a totally different story. This group seems
to find it much harder to be accepted in any area of life. Many people don’t
realise that as many as 0.5 percent of the population have some transgender
tendencies. We are currently working on setting guidelines for military
personnel who are going through sexual transition. Not only social guidelines
need to be set, but also medical and administrative ones.”
Proud 2 Serve
Even though
much has been achieved in the Dutch armed forces, there are still reports of
‘sexually different’ military personnel suffering harassment. This summer,
however, another milestone was reached. The defence ministry had its own boat
in Amsterdam’s Gay Pride Canal Parade – the motto of the men and women from the
Dutch military on board was ‘Proud 2 Serve’.
About the Challenges of Being a Gay Man – Oct 23, 2010 (Saint Germain channelled by Alexandra Mahlimay and Dan Bennack) - “You see, your Soul and Creator are not concerned with any perspective you have that contradicts the reality of your Divinity – whether this be your gender, your sexual preference, your nationality – or your race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or anything else.”
"The Akashic System" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, The Humanization of God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.) New !
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