Sexuality in the US army

• Gays in the US military can be discharged for being openly gay. But a West Point student recently received an award his thesis, which argued that “the military's policy banning gays is not only wrong, but harmful to the Army”. (First read on the Daily Dish)

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Under the Pentagon's policy, the military is prohibited from inquiring about the sex lives of service members, but those who openly acknowledge being gay must be discharged. There were 726 military members discharged under the policy during the year that ended last Sept. 30.”
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"I have a problem where you have a military that says you can't discriminate based on race; in all but very minimal ways you can't discriminate based on gender, and you can't discriminate based on religion or lack of religion. The only people not getting a fair shake were homosexuals," said Raggio, who is from Muncie, Ind., and describes himself as "about the straightest guy you can imagine."

• Sexual abuse in the (US) army. Appalling account of victims subject to more humiliation and chastised, instead of being believed and protected.
  
  

“Women and men have been sending us their stories of sexual abuse and harassment. Jessica was raped multiple times in South Korea and treated like a liar when she tried to report it. Lawanda was raped by a colleague in Afghanistan. When she asked for medical care, she was told she could not receive care until she filed a formal complaint. When she did file her complaint, she was transported to care on the same plane as her attacker. Each of them were humiliated by command and treated with disrespect. Now both women are fighting to come home. Why is it we are not protecting these women? I was speaking at the Oregon Country Fair and a young Iraq vet came up and spoke to me about his ruined mental health after being sexually abused by one of his sergeants. He said, "I would wake up with the sergeant's cock in my mouth." This type of abuse has got to stop.

It's bad enough we are sending our young people to an illegal occupation. But we must draw the line at our military having to defend themselves from sexual predators. […]”

There’s an online petition for Suzanne, an MP who served in Iraq and was sexually abused during her duties. She’s now spending time in jail because she refuses to go back to Iraq, as a result of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as well as Military Sexual Trauma.