Generational Divide: Why ‘Gen Y’ is over DADT
I'm Liz Feuerbach, SLDN's new Communications Intern, and I'll be adding to the conversation on Frontlines for the next few months. As an undergraduate student at American University, I hope to offer a unique "Generation Y" perspective on DADT.
Around campus and in class, I often hear chatter surrounding DADT. In fact, even most College Democrats and College Republicans uncharacteristically agree when it comes to the issue. Like a majority of Americans, most young people support repeal of DADT. A Gallup poll from June found 78 percent of Americans ages 18 to 29 support gays and lesbians serving openly.
My generation is generally more accepting of the LGBT community, meaning most young people entering the military don't care about sexual orientation. Some gay and lesbian young service members are serving openly. And many young patriots, the future leaders of our military, don't see openly gay people as a threat to unit cohesion and troop morale.
Still, a generational divide exists, particularly within the senior leadership of the military. Some continue to live in the fears of the past, claiming that open service will disrupt troop morale and unit cohesion, despite years of research that proves otherwise.
Young people need to get involved. Sign up for the 218 Initiative and contact your member of Congress today. If you can't stand to see another young, dedicated patriot discharged simply for being who he or she is, then we need to start doing something about it now.
08-31-09 By Liz Feuerbach, Communications Intern |
5 Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.Liz Feuerbach in Washington, D.C. on September 04, 2009 at 10.40 am
Thank you for the thoughtful response, ‘T2’. I plan to touch on some of the points you raised in future blog posts, but I think you hit the nail on the head when you suggested “Out will look a lot like the military looks now: Professional.”
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com on September 02, 2009 at 01.07 pm
Brava, Liz! And I hope you and several others from American University will join us at a DADT protest and memorial service for the first servicemember to fight the ban against gays in the military, Leonard Matlovich, Saturday, October 10th, at 2 pm in Congressional Cemetery in DC Southeast.
Speakers will include LGBT movement legends Frank Kameny and the Rev. Troy Perry, DADT casualities Lt. Dan Choi and Alex Nicholson, gay former Marine SSgt and winner of the Purple Heart Eric Alva, former Army CPT Tanya Domi who testified before the House Armed Services Committee during 1993 pre-DADT hearings as director of NGLTF’s Military Freedom Project, and civil rights veteran David Mixner who was the leader of the 1993 effort to end the ban and was arrested at the White House protesting its transformation into DADT. Others to be announced.
Few are aware that the very first gay rights protest was against the military’s ban in 1964. Eleven years later, Leonard outed himself to the Air Force to fight it; David, Tanya, and others continued the fight in 1993, and Dan, Alex, Eric, and others including all the great people at SLDN are leading the fight today.
FORTY-FIVE YEARS after that first protest, it is time to say louder than ever to both the President and Congress: if Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is not wrong, nothing is wrong!
Erik S. in Orlando,FL on September 02, 2009 at 10.51 am
As a newly enlisted service member, I can attest that the young guys and gals really don’t give a hoot if others are gay or not. The respect and teamwork I witness is surprising and admirable. I am very proud of them.
T2 in DC on September 01, 2009 at 08.23 pm
Liz, your personal demographic is important because you are the age of enlistees and newly commissioned officers. It is your generation who will live for brief periods in “close quarters” during training and deployment, not the Brass on the other side of the generational divide that you highlight.
So I ask you, new Communications Intern: how do we insert into the national conversation what Out looks like? For real, what does it mean to “serve openly?” Out might not look like anything new at all, or more accurately Out will look a lot like the military looks now: Professional.
This is important because what Out looks like will drive personnel policy decisions after the repeal. Or, closer to home in this pre-repeal period, ambiguity and uncertainty concerning what policy should be will conveniently continue to be a DoD argument to Congress to delay repeal.
The policy uncertainty is there because stereotypes fill the vacuum that exists in lieu of an accurate portrayal of what Out looks like. Stereotypes informed policy in 1993—Service members are living with the results in 2009.
Good luck- fire us up and get us to help you.
Mike Gorman in Lodi, Ca on August 31, 2009 at 10.55 pm
A good example of the generational gap is that “Center for Military Readiness”. I was just on their site, it gives no direct reasons why gays and lesbians hurt military readiness. How does a civilian with no military expieriance (Elaine Donelly) run an orginization for supposed military readiness? She’s even an anti feminist. Wanting to end female involvment in the military all together. I find her to be a traitor to this country and her gender. Such a sad creature.