So you can just imagine how I felt yesterday when I read, via Pam's House Blend, that Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network war correspondent Chuck Holton posted an entry on his blog, "Boots on the Ground" detailing just why gays shouldn't be allowed to serve openly in the military. Specifically, it is this part which caught my attention:
1. The military is, by necessity, an environment where members are encouraged to be strong and healthy. The military strongly discourages smoking these days, because anything that hurts a soldier's health ultimately makes him a liability to his unit. The homosexual lifestyle has been proven to lower a man's life expectancy by as much as 20 years - why would we encourage this, then?
2. The Gay subculture is one of the most violent subcultures out there. Government studies show gays are 20 times more likely to be abusive or abused in their personal relationships. This reflects an inherent emotional instability that is not conducive to good order or discipline.
3. Giving Blood: US FDA regulations exclude "men who have had sex with another man even once since 1977" from giving blood at blood banks. In combat, any one of your buddies might be called upon to donate their blood to keep you alive if you get wounded. Gays should never donate blood. End of story.
4. Suicide: The military is already having problems with troop suicides these days. Gays commit suicide, or attempt it, six times more often than heterosexuals. Is this the kind of American we want to entrust with a weapon?
Bottom line: Homosexuals, by their own choices, disqualify themselves from military service. For the pentagon to be even considering allowing them to serve openly only shows an appalling lack of common sense on the part of our elected leaders and military brass.
How is this piece wrong? Oh let me count the ways.
And I did to, in a response to his post which should have been published on the blog yesterday.
But it wasn't. And my guess is that since comments are "moderated" there, it still won't be published.
But this is what I said:
You made many errors in this piece.
For one, you cited a 1997 study but omitted that in 2001 those same researchers complained about how their work was being distorted to push the false idea that gays have a short lifespan - http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/...
Furthermore, you cited a Netherlands study (about gay suicide) without giving more details. Dr. (Theo) Sandfort, who conducted the study, said more work needs to be done and that he was not aware his conclusions was indicative of the gay community in other countries.
On your claim about "the gay subculture," you take a 12 page study - published 10 years ago - which talked about violence against women (in general) - and made a poor singular statement which encompassed all gays and lesbians. The way you do this is no different than racists using the study to make the same judgment about African-Americans.
It's apparently that Holton and by extension Roberston has learned nothing from the Prop 8 verdict because they continue to push the same lies about the lgbt community.
But as long as folks like them keep pushing these lies up, the lgbt community needs to continue knocking them down.
