So, I know this is sort of theme of in my stories, but I just sat through about fifteen minutes of listening to a chaplain talk about how for memorial day he hoped that America's children would stop paying attention to the “faggots and whores” and pay some hero worship to America's really bringers and producers of freedom, Vietnam Veterans(and yes, by whores he meant women in general. I asked).
The worst part was the way in which he said he. Chaplain teared up, started sniveling. He is just constantly broken hearted over the freedoms that women and queers have. It does his spirit great harm that they are allowed to walk the streets like they were people or something. The real heroes aren't women or queers, they are old men.
Now, I got noting against 'Nam Vets. My dad was one. I grew up hearing about how hard it was to come back from that. I'm aware that the world is a shitty place, and that it was especially shitty for that particular group of vets.
But you know what? Fuck it.
I'm in this war, I'm a queer, and I deserve to have the right to take action against some asshole who talks that derisively and hatefully about me and others like me. I do my part. I keep my mouth fucking closed. I do my job, and I do it well.
And it pisses me off that I have no recourse, no way to tell some damn Army shaman who feels bad that Nam ended before he had a chance to get over there and shoot him some gooks(his words, but don't worry, he followed it up by saying that he was kidding, so it's all cool). I deserve to have the right to tell someone who is talking to me in such an unprofessional manner to go to hell.
But no. No. You know what I get for doing my job? You know what I get for being a damn good soldier? I get insulted. People I love are insulted. And, in a lot of ways, the worst part is that I am expected to share those ideas and beliefs. Assholes like that chaplain want me to join in and attack queers and women. It isn't enough that I have to sit there and quietly take it, they want me to be or to become a person who hates queers and women.
It is bullshit. I just want to do my job.
Ugh.
I've had a lot of family in the armed forces (ones in USSR/former USSR though). And I respect the profession as much as I am horrified by what people have to endure.
You deserve so much better than this.
Posted by: Natalia | May 25, 2009 at 05:36 AM
That is so fucked up. I am really disappointed that Obama is not confronting this shit head on and saying, "No more! *All* of our military are brave soldiers, and we will not tolerate any sort of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation *ever again*!"
BTW, here via Feministe SSPS>
Posted by: Comrade PhysioProf | May 25, 2009 at 09:26 AM
The chaplain's words are shocking to me. Being non-religious, I was sort of annoyed with chaplains' presence in the armed forces to begin with, but I figured if they're actually helping soldiers deal with their difficult and stressful work, then fine. But how could a diatribe about faggots and whores and gooks actually give anybody solace? What's the process for getting this asshole fired?
Posted by: JessSnark | May 25, 2009 at 02:37 PM