Gay Soldiers Serving in Iraq

[chad]

Hello! I have a few questions concerning gay and lesbian men and women in the army. My name is Chad Lange, and I'm a San Francisco-based fiction writer. I'm currently working on a novel, and one of my main characters, Quentin, is an openly gay seventeen year-old boy who lives in a small, conservative town in Illinois. Quentin's best friend, Jeremy---who is also openly gay---decides to enlist in the army. Jeremy wants to go to Iraq and fight.

I have several questions concerning the mentality of a young gay person---male or female---who decides to fight for an administration that in no way supports or recognizes them. Specifically, I want to discuss reasons why young gay people want to fight in Iraq. Secondly, I'm interested in discussing what the enlistment process is like.

I would appreciate the help, and I promise to keep any conversations completely confidential. This is a novel I'm writing, and Jeremy is a supporting character. However, I want to accurately capture his desire to fight for his country. If you're willing to talk with me, then please e-mail me: chadlange31@yahoo.com. Thank you!

Best,
Chad

[hankzzz]

While I am not happy with the way the war has been handled, I support the troops and can understand that a young person would want to help defend our country. With all it's faults, America is still the leader of the free world; I don't think you would like the alternative!

Also, after seven years of the Army (this was years ago), I can tell you that the Army was full of gay people. This was in the late 70's to the mid 80's, before "don't ask, don't tell".

I think the military would be the ideal place to perform any kind of "integration". All they need to do is make sure their regs include provisions of harrassment so straights don't harrass gays and vice-versa. If they could only look back and see all the veterans (gays AND lesbians, etc.) who have served our country that have later come out as gay - many of these people were veterans of a foreign war.

Now that the military is in urgent need of recruits, this would be an ideal time to perform integration, or for the Pentagon to at least discuss how this would be accomplished. Unfortunately, the current administration and congress would resist that.

All in all, the military was a good experience for me. I was lucky I missed the Vietnam draft and that during my tenure I did not have to fight. By the way, the troops in Iraq do get to communicate via the Internet and there some "personals" websites that have gay troops on them. If you should come across one of those sites, make sure you thank them for their hard work! ;)

[gaylover]

gay love is the most powerful of all the love forces in the world, even more powerful than god himself. enbrace its warmth. and feed off its power, thats the power of love....