Marines on gay training............
 

Marines Get Trained on Accepting Gay Recruits
Thursday, 28 Apr 2011 03:51 PM

SAN DIEGO – If a Marine spots two men in his battalion kissing off-duty at a shopping mall, he should react as if he were seeing a man and woman. If he turns on the television news to see a fellow Marine dressed as a civilian and marching in a parade with a banner that reads, "Support Gays and Lesbians in the Military!" he should accept it as a free right of expression.

Prescriptions for those possible scenarios are being played out at Marine bases as the military prepares to allow gays to openly serve, ending a 17-year-old policy commonly known as "don't ask, don't tell." Training for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines began early this year and is expected to finish by summer's end. The repeal goes into effect 60 days after the president, defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify that lifting the ban won't hurt the military's ability to fight.

"These changes are about policy," states briefing material for Marine instructors. "The policy is about adherence to orders and behavior, and not about beliefs."

The latest round of training material asks Marines to consider their reactions to a wide range of scenarios, from seeing a member "hanging around" a gay bar to hearing locker-room jokes from others who refuse to shower in front of gays. Members of the 1st Marine Logistics Group report to class Thursday at Camp Pendleton.

There is nothing wrong with "hanging around" a gay bar, the materials state. The officer who witnesses the loud locker-room banter aimed at gays and lesbians should remind the Marines any discrimination or harassment is inappropriate.

For those who oppose the new policy, the Marine Corps says it doesn't expect anyone to change their personal beliefs. Still, everyone must follow orders.

"You remain obligated to follow orders that involve interaction with others who are gay or lesbian, even if an unwillingness to do so is based on strong, sincerely held moral or religious beliefs," the training material states.

A top-notch recruiter who opposes the new policy cannot refuse a promising applicant on grounds of sexual orientation but might be considered for another assignment and, at the discretion of the Navy secretary, may be granted early discharge.

Chaplains who preach at base chapels that homosexuality is a sin are entitled to express their religious beliefs during worship.

The Marines expect to finish training on the new policy by June 1, Gen. James Amos, the Marine Corps commandant, testified in Congress earlier this month.

Amos testified last year that permitting gays to openly serve could disrupt smaller combat units and distract leaders from preparing for battle. When he appeared this month before the House Armed Services Committee, he said he had been looking for problems that might arise under the new policy and hadn't found any "recalcitrant pushback."

"There has not been the anxiety over it from the forces in the field," he said.
© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


This is bullshit,plain and very simple............It's going to go over to the Army side and give this same shameful message ..............I really think there will be a lot of trouble over this......:mad:

Big Teddy :munchin

As I said before...another bullshit social experiment imposed on the military.

They have no choice....some of the "rights" you lose when you're Uncle Sams property...:mad::mad:

And it's not about changing beliefs?

Well I can say is Alternative Lifestyle Sensitivity Training for us starts in May.

Well the hits keep roll on!!!!

I can tell you I've seen the issues it gave a USMC Company Commander during Combat. He had one Marine that just could not stop providing services to fellow Marines, Co ship him out.

I've already covered the training for about 90% of the "green suiters" in DOTD. I try to keep it simple, the time for arguing is over...now it's about covering our a$$es (so to speak) so when there is an incident, and there will be, the command can say they were briefed.

4th BN did our "training" this past week and from what I gleamed from it is DOMA is next on the list. wont be long before "they need the same benifits as straight couples" ie housing, health care and such for their life partner...once the military signs off on it its just a matter of time..

I had a buddy back home who was NZ Army, used to say you aint gay unless you're giving it. The taking fellas are just lucky!!??

Can't say I agree with him :confused:

S

Nail on the Head per sey. Yup, ya got the brief, you where told.....we're "covered"...:mad:

On second thought...looking at the glass "half full" so to speak..there's more chicks for us:D

Not sure if things are the same now, but in my day most teams had open slots and it was somewhat difficult to get rid of someone. We had a guy on our team that everyone wanted gone so one morning Don Ringley (TS) announces there is a new team PT standard. Tells us we are going for a run of undetermined duration. He leads and has me at the back. He then announces that anyone who falls behind LHC will be immediately kicked to the B team. We then proceeded to run until said pogue fell out.

Not sure how you are going to ship a guy out for being a pole smoker.


LHC

Do you believe this shit

Does this mean we can shower with females too? Same principles...

Why even drag everyone through "training" and "scenarios"? Just take two minutes and say; "don't harass or treat them different....oh, and you're going to have to deal with it". Maybe it's me, but the effort going into this is ridickless.

Then how about training on everything that can be turned into a discriminatory or harassing comment? Why not turn our attention from fighting and defending and do feel-good lessons on peoples feelings all day long.