Why we should keep the 'don't ask don't tell policy' - Essay Example

Dr. Herek (2000) stated that the Pentagon’s principal justification for this policy continues to be that the presence of openly gay and lesbian personnel would interfere with the military’s ability to accomplish its mission. According to Dr. Herek (2000), the rationale for this policy is that there exists an antagonism of heterosexual members of the military among the homosexuals that they don’t want to work with them. There is an existing debate whether to abolish the policy or not. A year ago, the United States Senate was to decide if they will take the first step toward abolishing the established policy for the gay military service men and women and permit them to serve openly (McGreal, 2010).

The Democratic Party senators are the ones pushing this repeal. They tried to win the support of the Republicans since they need 600 out of 100 votes to repeal the existing policy. Personally, I don’t think that this policy should be repealed. I believe that for gay people working and serving the military to be protected and secured from their co-workers who dislike and loathe them, this policy should be kept. This policy existed because it has served its purpose of protecting the gay service men and women in the military from the sexual, emotional and physical harassments from other members of the military who cannot accept and work peacefully with them.

A story of a gay former sailor really stuck into my head. He was 18 years old when he was assigned and deployed in Bahrain in 2005. He was really serious in serving his country and he thought that enlisting in the Navy will be his way of serving and giving back to his beloved country even if he is gay. He opted to put service to his country above his personal life. He was assigned to train the dogs to detect explosives. The navy dog trainer was responsible for training and working with two dogs throughout the region and keeping explosives and insurgents out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

He was really enjoying the job amidst the duty for 12 hours a day and 112-degree heat. But what made his life miserable was neither the heat nor the number of hours of duty in Bahrain, but the daily harassment and torture he received from his co-workers. When he joined the Navy, it was worse than facing his enemies in the field. He was tormented by his chief and fellow sailors. Imagine how the other heterosexual soldiers made his life harder when he only wanted to serve the country. The officers tied him to chairs, mocked him and even locked the poor gay soldier to feces-filled dog kennel.

The abuse did not stop in an hour or in the morning, but it was an all-day event. Instead of being trained, he was just mocked, abused and humiliated by his officers. There was this time when the soldier was forced to simulate an oral sex inside a classroom over and over again. Joseph Rocha, a student at the University of San Diego, the former dog trainer of the United States Navy shared his story after serving the country with his life. He is a person that every one of us must be proud of and someone we should respect.

He risked his life to serve the country. Despite the daily harassment, mockery and torture, he was able to survive 28 months of service. Do we really have to repeal and abolish the policy? The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is a policy that could protect the homosexuals in the military to suffer the same way as Joseph Rocha did. Nobody wants to be tortured and mocked every single day. Aside from the fact that the service in the military is a very difficult and demanding work, the harassment makes it worse.

What will happen if the homosexuals will act openly in the military service? Don’t you think the number of gay abuse in the military will not increase rapidly? How will the heterosexuals react if