Ed Brayton is a freelance writer and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Bleu Copas is the latest in a long line of arabic-speaking military personnel - something we have an enormous shortage of - to be discharged for being gay. ABC News covered his story, and the video can be viewed here. He makes a very important point. At a time when the military has been scrambling to find enough people who speak Arabic to keep up with the flow of intelligence information that needs translating, an astonishing 55 American soldiers with Arabic language skills have been discharged solely because they're gay. It all points out some undeniable hypocrisy on the part of the anti-gay religious right.
Support the troops? We hear that constantly. I guess it doesn't apply to those troops who are gay. The war on terror? This policy is clearly undermining out ability to fight that war. They complain about political correctness, but what on earth is this if not a vastly more important example of the very thing they complain about? In the name of sexual correctness, they are willing to weaken our military and weaken our ability to respond to the threat from Islamic terrorists. Is it worth undermining our national security in order to soothe the bigotry of a segment of the public?
This goes back to the principle I discussed in my post about Warren Moon the other day: stop focusing on superficial traits. There is a list of traits we look for in military officers, and Copas fit them all, which is why he was so highly decorated and so good at his job. Whether someone is gay or not has absolutely nothing to do with their ability to do that job, just like skin color, hair color or religious belief. Stop viewing people primarily through their most irrelevant characteristics and focus on what's important.
Comments
55 translators!
How about getting them jobs with the NSA? They are buried in data, an I don't think they have a petty No-Gay hiring policy.
Posted by: No One of Consequence | August 7, 2006 2:25 PM
Actually, NOOC, IIRC, when some gay soldiers were discharged from the Monterray language institute (where they were learning Arabic, among other key languages), at least some were approached by other government agencies, but were not inclined to help their government after being treated so shabbily.
Posted by: CPT_Doom | August 7, 2006 2:50 PM
It seems to me that from a security standpoint, having an openly gay Arabic translator is a good thing. Aren't the Muslim fundamentalists are at least as homophobic as our own Christian zealots? By employing gay translators, you wouldn't have to worry that they are a mole. The gay translator wouldn't try to contact a terrorist and pass on information because the terrorist would kill him as soon as he found out their sexual orientation. Maybe I'm overlooking something, but having a gay Arabic translator sounds like a win-win situation to me.
Posted by: frank | August 7, 2006 3:31 PM
It seems to me that from a security standpoint, having an openly gay Arabic translator is a good thing. Aren't the Muslim fundamentalists are at least as homophobic as our own Christian zealots? By employing gay translators, you wouldn't have to worry that they are a mole. The gay translator wouldn't try to contact a terrorist and pass on information because the terrorist would kill him as soon as he found out their sexual orientation. Maybe I'm overlooking something, but having a gay Arabic translator sounds like a win-win situation to me.
That, of course, means nothing to the neocons.
Posted by: gwangung | August 7, 2006 3:42 PM
It's because gays would be helping the terrorist since they hate traditional christian values.
Posted by: Matthew | August 7, 2006 4:34 PM
C'mon Ed, there is no such thing as gay people in the military. Just like there are no liberals or Democrats in the military. These claims are all made up by the liberal media to make good Christian boys and girls look bad.
[end sarcasm now ...]
Posted by: dogmeatIB | August 7, 2006 7:50 PM
I wonder how many of the 55 are really gay and how many have found a convenient way to get out of Iraq? I'd play the homo card in a heartbeat to get out of that hellhole.
Posted by: The Decidenator | August 7, 2006 10:35 PM
I'd play the homo card in a heartbeat to get out of that hellhole.
I quote the "Draft Dodger Rag" [Phil Ochs, 1964]:
...When I got to my old draft board, buddy, this is what I said:
"Sarge, I'm only eighteen, I got a ruptured spleen,
And I always carry a purse,
I got eyes like a bat and my feet are flat,
My asthma's getting worse..." (etc., etc.)
Posted by: Vasha | August 7, 2006 10:58 PM
It seems to me that from a security standpoint, having an openly gay Arabic translator is a good thing... By employing gay translators, you wouldn't have to worry that they are a mole.
Good call, Frank. This stuff should be obvious to our policymakers, and if we were serious about fighting Islamic fundamentalism, we'd stand up a lot more clearly for the groups it oppresses.
Meanwhile, it just blows my mind that there are so many gay Arabic translators out there. The stereotype that gays are good with language (blame Oscar Wilde for that one) may have some truth to it after all.
As for me, I got rejected from the army ROTC program back in high school. Not for being gay, which I hid, but for asthma. It cost me a college scholarship, but happily I found another. And I shudder to think where I'd be right now if I didn't have asthma.
Posted by: Jason Kuznicki | August 8, 2006 9:50 AM