Family Research Council refuses to acknowledge lgbt servicemen and women

If you want a good view of how religious right groups subliminally push hatred against the lgbt community, check out this email I received from the Family Research Council regarding the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy:

President Obama wants to raise the rainbow flag of the homosexual rights movement over them.


Which will it be? That's what is at stake in Family Research Council's (FRC) campaign to stop the homosexual Left from lifting the ban on open homosexuality in the military.

That prohibition is federal law and was applied in the 1993 Clinton compromise policy called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT).

And if the Left overturns it and forces open homosexuality on the military, here are just a few of the results:

• Soldiers will be forced to live in close quarters with people who view them as sexual objects.
• Morale will plunge, discipline will suffer, and unit cohesion -- the glue that holds the military together -- will fall apart and dramatically weaken our national defense capability.
• Many highly motivated, well-trained servicemen and women will leave the military rather than serve in compromising situations . . . and many men and women simply will not join the military.
• Scarce funds will be wasted to retrofit sleeping quarters and handle discipline problems.

I've seen many religious right missives about the lgbt community and that email is probably the ugliest thing I have ever read for a number of reasons.

The implication that lgbts only want to join the military for sexual adventures is bad enough. And it is here that the Family Research Council is being crafty. The organization is obviously channeling the discredited studies of one Paul Cameron, particularly the one which claims that gay soldiers are four to seven times more likely to rape their fellow officers.

I wonder how the Family Research Council feels about Cameron's other claims, such as gays stuff gerbils up their rectums.

But the most insulting thing in this email is the lack of acknowledgment for our lgbt fighting men and women. Gays and lesbians aren't trying to invade the military. We serve in it already and we merely want the right to be open about who we are.

According to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, more than 13,500 service members have been fired under  Don't Ask, Don't Tell since 1994.

Also:

• 73 percent of military personnel are comfortable with lesbians and gays (Zogby International, 2006).
• One in four U.S. troops who served in Afghanistan or Iraq knows a member of their unit who is gay (Zogby, 2006).

But you can't tell that to the Family Research Council.

In the world that the supposedly Christian group inhabits (and seems to want to create for the rest of us), there is no such person as Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, who was the first American to be wounded in war in Iraq. On March 21, 2003 Alva stepped on a landmine, sustaining heavy injuries to his leg. It was later amputated, leading Alva to be medically discharged and awarded a Purple Heart.

Nor are there such people as Jenny Kopfstein, Rhonda Davis, David Hall, or any of the other lgbt fighting men and women who, with the rest of our Armed Forces, are willing to give up their lives to preserve this country's freedoms.

Even, unfortunately, FRC's right to disrespect them by diminishing their contributions.

Regardless how anyone feels about lgbts serving openly in the military, to pretend that they don't serve at all - and serve with honor- is an act worthy of a spiteful child.

But it's not surprising. After all, FRC thinks elderly lgbts don't exist. Why should anyone be surprised that the organization feels the same way about lgbt servicemen and women.

In it's zeal to yet again pigeonhole the lgbt community as a bunch selfish hedonists, FRC does a disservice not only to our entire Armed Forces but also to the concepts of integrity, truth, and Christian values.