I am responding to the last article on DADT. Nigel’s opinions are very extreme to me, but being a respectable person; I honor and respect Doerfler’s opinons. I think that again he crossed the thin line between opinion and insult. The fact that you’re a Christian has nothing to do with your hostility towards gays. Many Christians, including myself love and accept gay people as normal human beings. (Because that is what they are!) It is policies like DADT that de-humanize gays from the public, not only can they not serve openly in the armed forces; they also cannot marry or adopt children in certain states.
I myself am enlisted in the United States army and know for a fact that your “sexual temptation” theory is false. Men and women are sometimes forced to serve together nights upon end overseas in the field and do not have sexual relations. DADT only prohibits gays from serving openly in the military, not from serving. This would make your supposed “sexual temptations” theory already an issue.
One thing you do not understand is the life and the mindset of a soldier. A soldier (gay or not) is there to serve their country and to protect their family and friends, not for sexual purposes. The military supports its troops’ families. For a homosexual to join the armed forces with DADT in effect they are forced to separate themselves from the partners and sometimes kids because DADT does not recognize civil unions. DADT did not protect, it discriminated and segregated.
I don’t think you recall that the majority of the military stated that they were comfortable serving their country with openly gay soldiers by their sides. Your “comfort” theory is out the window as well. Being openly gay has nothing to do with your military ability as a soldier. DADT is nothing but segregation which was erased from our government during the civil rights movement. Religious beliefs have nothing to do with our government. Separation of church from state has been in effect ever since our government was assembled. Anti-gay rights are solely based on religious reasons which makes them unconstitutional. The only thing that people should be doing is protecting and supporting our troops, not demonizing them because of sexual orientation. It is policies like DADT and anit-gay marriage laws and the people who bully and discriminate that have raised suicide rates among gay teenagers. They are being de-humanized from the government and society. No one is telling you to love gay people, but respect them as human beings and American citizens. They are American citizens just like everyone, so if they want to protect the “land of the FREE”, shouldn’t they be free as well? No matter what, gay, straight, man or woman we are all Americans. So let’s make this the home of the free for once. Support our troops. They are protecting your rights, the same rights they also deserve.

-Jace Porter

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I would have thought that after all the negative responses to your letter two years ago that you would have gotten the point and toned it down a bit. To be honest, I was surprised to see the new article published. Based on this year’s previous articles, I thought that you’d moved on to topics that were more worth discussing, and I’d actually started to enjoy your different and (usually) respectful opinion. In all reality, though I am an avid supporter of gay rights, I think that there are many other issues that need to be brought to light before a repeal that really doesn’t have any impact on your life at all.

But I’m not trying to prove a point to you; I am speaking for the hundreds of students at Roosevelt who are outraged and offended not only by your letter a few years ago but by this new article. I only want to set straight some of the ‘facts’ you used in supporting your point.
Overall, your argument is invalid because DADT was solely an issue of government. Or did we forget about the separation of church and state that our WHOLE country was founded on? If you want to use religion as an excuse to hate people you don’t personally agree with, move to a different country.

Also, I don’t know when it started to be okay for “Christians” to hate other people. As I remember it, Christianity is all about loving everyone; yes even the “sinners.” So how can you justify hate? Did God himself tell you to write this article? I strongly believe that God would be very disappointed in the way you’ve tried to illustrate your point.

When you talk about gay service members engaging in “the act of sodomy” do you truly think that they are going to get down and dirty on the battlefield? Have you personally seen two homosexuals going at it in the middle of combat? And who are you to say that homosexual service members are the only ones that have temptations” theory already an issue.
One thing you do not understand is the life and the mindset of a soldier. A soldier (gay or not) is there to serve their country and to protect their family and friends, not for sexual purposes. The military supports its troops’ families. For a homosexual to join the armed forces with DADT in effect they are forced to separate themselves from the partners and sometimes kids because DADT does not recognize civil unions. DADT did not protect, it discriminated and segregated.

I don’t think you recall that the majority of the military stated that they were comfortable serving their country with openly gay soldiers by their sides. Your “comfort” theory is out the window as well. Being openly gay has nothing to do with your military ability as a soldier. DADT is nothing but segregation which was erased from our government during the civil rights movement. Religious beliefs have nothing to do with our government. Separation of church from state has been in effect ever since our government was assembled. Anti-gay rights are solely based on religious reasons which makes them unconstitutional. The only thing that people should be doing is protecting and supporting our troops, not demonizing them because of sexual orientation. It is policies like DADT and anit-gay marriage laws and the people who bully and discriminate that have raised suicide rates among gay teenagers. They are being de-humanized from the government and society. No one is telling you to love gay people, but respect them as human beings and American citizens. They are American citizens just like everyone, so if they want to protect the “land of the FREE”, shouldn’t they be free as well? No matter what, gay, straight, man or woman we are all Americans. So let’s make this the home of the free for once. Support our troops. They are protecting your rights, the same rights they also deserve. -Jace Portersexual thoughts during their tours? I find this point a particularly confusing one and therefore don’t even know what to make of it.
Another argument I found especially ignorant was when you said you don’t have to understand why it is so hard to not tell people you’re gay. It’s like trying to hide your last name. Your sexual orientation is a part of who you are and if straight service members don’t have to hide it, neither should gay ones.

It makes me cringe when people use the excuse of “it makes me uncomfortable” in regards to homosexuality. Have you ever thought about what they are feeling? If it makes you “uncomfortable” I can’t even imagine how much worse it would be for the other person. And more importantly, how would they feel if they knew you were so full of yourself that you thought just because you have the type of plumbing they are interested in that you are automatically attracted to them? I can imagine they would laugh right in your face. I find it extremely sad that you are demoralizing yourself by essentially saying that you only view humans as sexual objects by making one your most prominent arguments a purely sexual one.
Lastly, you can’t say not everyone will be okay with the repeal. As Will Hoffman said in his rebuttal, 70% of service members would be fine with it. That’s more than half of all members so how can you say that most people would be unhappy about it? The fact that a whopping 70% are okay with the repeal of DADT is a reflection of how far we’ve come as a nation and as people, but your article only serves to remind us that the fight is not over.
In the end, you may have written a very convincing article for people who already agree with you, but it is going to take a lot more than a few well-placed Bible references and some hateful words to convince me.

- Victoria Heeter