So you justify excluding gays from service for want of a head.
Yes. The difference being that it's not just the head facilities, but the showers and berthing as well. I'm not trying to sound condescending, but I don't think that you truly fathom the additional burden that this addition will put on the system. On a ship, every space is used to it's maximum potential as best we can. Space is at an utmost premium, submarines being the most extreme example. If we're going to dedicate space to additional showers, heads, and berthing, then the reward needs to be worth the cost. I.E. it would have to render either a dramatic boost to recruiting/retention (adding to our numbers) or a significant improvement to our efficiency. The same space issue holds true for austere environments as well. Those facilities
have to come from somewhere. Either we have to bring them with us (space and money) or build them on site (time/effort and money). An increase in infrastructure
is going to cost us. Is that cost worth it? Based on the information available (admittedly anecdotal), I would say not.
My entire argument is logistical vice moral or emotional. If you want to argue for the universal head/shower/berthing arrangement, then fine. That would solve the logistical peice. My answer to that is that our social mores have not evolved to to include those practices. Should they? I don't know. That's a value based judgement that's not entirely mine to make. The
fact is, though, that our society does not currently tolerate that practice (universal heads/showers/berthing.....NOT homosexuality).
You could make that argument for females as well, why double the number of berthing and head facilities required? And that probably justifies keeping females out of submarines. But we've managed to find room for them pretty much elsewhere, so why not gays as well?
Yes, I could make that argument for females as well. I might even arrive at the same conclusion( that it is more effective/efficient to exclude them). That's obviously the answer we've come to with regard to submarines, on which you seem to concur. The difference being that females make up roughly 50% of the population of our recruiting population (as noted before) while homosexuals make up somewhere around 5-15%, depending on who you want to believe. That greater percentage renders greater benefits with respect to the additional burden.
Additionally, in support of excluding women from military service, I could argue that we're not getting the same effectiveness from a female in a purely physical sense, making them even less of an attractive option for optimizing our force, but that is an entirely different debate covered ad nauseum in mulitple other threads. I don't want to start that one all over again.
Maybe we just have to grow up. Do gays have to use private heads so they don't check each other out?
Grow up? That's an emotional response. You're assuming that this is a purely mental/social issue. Like I said, it's primarily a logistical one. Logistiaclly, the only way this makes sense is to have the universal heads/showers/berthing solution. That's not going to happen until our society evolves ("grows up" to use your term) to allow such practices. Maybe that will happen. I don't know. Whether it should or not is a value judgement, and frankly I don't care if it does or not. All I know is that it hasn't happenned yet. That's a fact.
The next theory that always comes up is that the military should lead the way in fomenting this societal change in mores. That's an unwise choice because you are using the military as a vehicle of social change instead of it's intended purpose of protecting and defending the country. The military should reflect society in terms of social mores, not instigate new ones. If you want to argue that the previous statement is as argument for allowing gays to openly serve in the military as a reflection of the somewhat widespread acceptance of gays in society, I would ask you to consider the deeper social contsruct of personal privacy as it relates to heads/showers/berthing and realize that we already do. When that changes in society first, then we can reengage this debate on a more rational basis.
In front of the mirror I actually tell myself to get the hell out of Mississippi ASAP.
:icon_smil
