The justification, could be that since there are no openly gay soldiers serving in combat arms units, that there are currently no issues with fraternization; which is the primary reason that females are barred from serving in combat arms units. You do know what the four combat arms are. Yes?
How do you know that there are no openly gay men serving in combat units? Do you have connections in every combat unit in the US military? I highly doubt it. There are very likely openly gay men in at least some combat units in the US. I guarantee that there are currently no women in those combat units. And, whether they are openly gay or not, there are still gay men serving in almost all combat units (I won't say absolutely all, because there are most likely not that many gay men in the military, but they are still able to serve in all). What should matter to you is whether or not they can do their job, not who they are attracted to.
How much experience do you have in a combat arms unit?
Why does it matter? I have enough intelligence to know the difference between a gay man and a woman. And I have known plenty of men who have served in combat units, including my husband. I know that he knew of at least one guy who served with him that was gay. Didn't affect his performance, the performance of the guys with him, nor his unit's operational ability to have a gay man in their unit. And the only difference between an openly gay soldier and a gay soldier that everyone knows is gay, but who he himself hasn't publicly admitted is the lack of concrete evidence.
I'll keep repeating this as often as you need it, there are already rules in place to deal with any relationships that may occur that could be harmful to good order and discipline, fraternization and sexual harassment along with no sex rules while in combat zones. Considering we have so many people that are worried about the harm that the gay soldiers may cause, I highly doubt that very many of those people would let the gay soldiers slide on any rule breaking if they found out about it, unlike many of those same soldiers who may just let their buddy slide for sleeping with a girl in combat zone bases.
We're talking about sexual issues, not racial issues. What's the fall out going to be when gay soldiers refuse to billet with straight soldiers? I think you're handicapping yourself by looking at this from a single demension.
What makes you think that gay soldiers would refuse to billet with straight soldiers? They are living with them now. And it isn't the gay soldiers who are even suggesting separate billeting assignments, it is some of the straight soldiers who are wanting/demanding/expecting this. The straight soldiers are the ones who are afraid that the gay soldiers might be checking them out or try to sexually assault them if they live together.
And we are talking about reasonable arguments for why something would be necessary. Gay rights are walking a very close path to black integration, especially in the military. I guarantee that there were people asking the same question that you are back when they decided to finally integrate the military completely. I bet you that there were some people who asked, "Well what about when blacks/whites refuse to billet with the other?". So the question is, why would it be necessary to separate gay men/women from straight men/women, when they already currently share the same living spaces? What kind of problems exactly, do you see coming from such an arrangement that wouldn't already currently exist? Afterall, they do currently share living spaces. The only rule that would actually be changed is that the gay svc member can't be kicked out for declaring themself as gay, the other rules concerning sexual harassment are still in place.
When I say, "gay", I'm referring to gay males and gay females. BTW, do you understand how you contradicted yourself in that paragraph?
I understand that I left out "with men" in the last sentence. My bad. That last part should have read "Women, whether straight or gay do not serve in all of the same units, and certainly don't share living spaces
with men, and never have."
However, when you are talking about combat units, you are only referring to gay men in reference to all women, whether gay or straight. Women, of any sexuality, are not allowed in combat units because all women are physically women. Which is also a good point. If the main reason that women weren't allowed in combat units was the potential for unwanted relationships, then wouldn't it be okay for gay women to be in combat units? Afterall, the gay women wouldn't want to sleep with the straight guys, so then the only problems would come from straight guys who were willing to rape those women. And if there are guys who would be willing to rape fellow soldiers, then those are guys who shouldn't be in the military anyways.
Also, there are very few females that care if they have to share living spaces with women who aren't of the same sexuality as themselves. I shared berthing spaces with at least 3 women who were openly gay and a couple more who were bi, no one in my berthing cared. In fact, when we all were accused of being gay, we considered it hilarious and joked around about it. I'd be willing to bet that most of the complaints about sharing spaces are coming from straight men, not straight women nor gay men or women.
