RLTW
Regimental motto:
Sua Sponte
I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God
who is sending a love letter to the world
--Mother Teresa
Well, that's all right, Mama
That's all right with you
Yeah, that's all right now, Mama
Just anyway you do
--That's All Right Mama, Elvis Presley
______________
Diane Schroer, a Ranger-qualified Special Forces officer who began transitioning from male to female shortly after retiring as a Colonel after 25 years of distinguished service in the Army recently won her Title VII sex discrimination lawsuit against the Library of Congress.
Schroer was awarded a job as a terrorism research analyst at the Library of Congress, but the offer was rescinded after the former David Schroer informed her supervisor-to-be that he would "start becoming Diane before beginning the new job."
The Boson Globe reported last week, "Schroer said that in the Army she was director of the classified group that tracked and targeted terrorists, and she briefed high-level officials such as Vice President Dick Cheney. After retiring from the military, David Schroer interviewed for the Congressional Research Service job at the Library of Congress and got an offer in December 2004 (Transsexual Wins Bias Lawsuit.)" The only reason she was terminated prior to service was her impending gender transition.
We wonder how sympathetic the Shadowspear or SOCNET communities are to their fellow Ranger's plight. We are sure they would quibble over the Colonel's "schoolhouse Ranger" status, somehow finding a way to shun her from a community of potential brotherhood and support. Ranger imagines they will be in a real bind having to recognize that a woman is actually a Special Forces - Ranger type with bigger balls than most of them possess.
Even if they were to recognize Schroer as one of their own, she would then have to contend with their Neanderthal views of women in general. Probably a less savory scenario for Schroer than the SOCNET members.
We as a nation have a long way to go if we wish to claim inclusivity and full membership in the 21st Century.
Sua Sponte
I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God
who is sending a love letter to the world
--Mother Teresa
Well, that's all right, Mama
That's all right with you
Yeah, that's all right now, Mama
Just anyway you do
--That's All Right Mama, Elvis Presley
______________
Diane Schroer, a Ranger-qualified Special Forces officer who began transitioning from male to female shortly after retiring as a Colonel after 25 years of distinguished service in the Army recently won her Title VII sex discrimination lawsuit against the Library of Congress.
Schroer was awarded a job as a terrorism research analyst at the Library of Congress, but the offer was rescinded after the former David Schroer informed her supervisor-to-be that he would "start becoming Diane before beginning the new job."
The Boson Globe reported last week, "Schroer said that in the Army she was director of the classified group that tracked and targeted terrorists, and she briefed high-level officials such as Vice President Dick Cheney. After retiring from the military, David Schroer interviewed for the Congressional Research Service job at the Library of Congress and got an offer in December 2004 (Transsexual Wins Bias Lawsuit.)" The only reason she was terminated prior to service was her impending gender transition.
We wonder how sympathetic the Shadowspear or SOCNET communities are to their fellow Ranger's plight. We are sure they would quibble over the Colonel's "schoolhouse Ranger" status, somehow finding a way to shun her from a community of potential brotherhood and support. Ranger imagines they will be in a real bind having to recognize that a woman is actually a Special Forces - Ranger type with bigger balls than most of them possess.
Even if they were to recognize Schroer as one of their own, she would then have to contend with their Neanderthal views of women in general. Probably a less savory scenario for Schroer than the SOCNET members.
We as a nation have a long way to go if we wish to claim inclusivity and full membership in the 21st Century.
Labels: Diane Schroer, lgbt, Ranger files gender discrimination lawsuit, shadowspear, socnet
posted by Lisa at 9:45 PM
27 Comments:
Bill Clinton was first elected president with all kinds of exciting promises, but the first inkling of the move of his administration toward national defense mediocrity was when he failed to unilaterally integrate known homosexuals into the armed forces. People forget that any U.S. president, as the commander in chief, could by autonomous order cause the integration of open gays, lesbians, and transsexuals into the military. One order, you know, and hundreds of years of keeping homosexual soldiers in the uncomfortable closet would be over.
How flamboyantly flawed a president was Mr. Clinton! He's a bit of a diva, isn't he?
i'm a big tough
ace number one
steely eyed american fighting man
i ain't askeered of osama, or none of them.
i'll crawl through jungle mud, dive through slimy water, climb mountains, jump out of speeding planes, boats, submarines, or dangle from a rope of a low flying helicopter to reach my objectives.
once there i will fight like a demon. i will withstand all manner of hardship and danger. often i will do this cheerfully.
but, please, or for gawd's sake please, you just can't, not ever, make me shower with a homo. . .
i'm scared of the showers.
(am i the only one who finds that totally fucking ridiculous?)
spookwatch - So, you prefer Bush?
Good for Diane. But then I guess I am one of the ridiculous ones. Beacause I would have a problem with this scenario if Colonel Schroer was still in uniform.
I have no problem with DADT as practiced in the 1990s under Clinton, although I understand that in the last eight years some of Bush's cronies have pushed illegal witch-hunts which I disagree with.
Sorry if I am the skunk at the party. At 65, and long out of the service, I am not in any danger of shower shenanigans that MB alludes to. But I prefer not to have my grandsons (or granddaughters) held captive to that lifestyle. I am not alone in that sentiment. Tens of millions of parents will actively discourage their children from joining if current rules of service on Gs&Ls are changed. Those moms and pops won't have to work hard to discourage enlistment as the young men and women of this country will run in horror from recruiting sergeants.
And yet, I do not consider myself a neanderthal on the subject (feel free to disagree as I am sure you will). I have a brother-in-law who served honorably in the 4th Infantry Division in Nam, after the war he married a beauty-contest winner (female), later divorced, and then in his forties took up with an interior designer (male). My brother-in-law is a great guy and I have a lot of respect for him. He (and his sgnfcnt other) are always welcome. His sister, my bride, gets more uptight about it than I do.
If open integration of Gs&Ls is ever going to work, it will need the buy in from the American people. One way to get that buy-in would be to start with all gay and all lesbian units - no straights allowed. Prove to the American people that they can hack it. The 442nd RCT Niseis did it, the Tuskegee Airmen did it, the 65th Infantry Borinqueneers did it, and WACs, WAVEs, and WMs did it. I am confident that Gs&Ls could also do it and would serve with honor.
Well, as an intel puke in the 70's, I was as homophobic as they came, until the big witch-hunt against fags on Sheridan Kaserne... then I saw how everybody who was usually homophobic came together to support the guys getting the boot. Opened my eyes.
It was odd.. no matter how many homo's there were, it didn't turn me gay.... guess it isn't the evil virus the wackos would have us believe.
Flippin closet queeens wouldn't be so self-hating and angry if they just came out.
And then there's the issue that the military sex Gestapo don't just target gays...remember what happened to
Kelly Flinn?
Spook,
The sexual harassment in the military to gays and women differs ever so slightly. To gays it's clear and open, but towards women it's very subtly shaded.
I first noticed this fact when my daughter was in ROTC and the women's PT performance requirements vastly exceeded those of the Army's active duty standards. I believe this is a subtle form of sexism, as they wish to weed out women before they enter active duty. It starts there. It's sometimes hard to pin down but it's there.
We all know that homosexuals serve with valor and distinction, yet we continue to discriminate. Yes, I know -- democracy is messy, and it gets messier when we let gays defend our liberty. Forgetting the fact for the moment that the first amputee in this war was, in fact, a gay Marine.
Mr. Clinton had no moral authority to dictate anything to the military or the country when it involved morality or sexuality. Then again, no one does. The same extends to the nutless straight people that love being the chief but never played Indian.
My respect of true patriotism goes beyond words. If gays serve, then they've earned my respect. Neither BushCheney nor Clinton will ever earn my respect. They are all just above pond scum to my way of thinking. I'd rather be gay than be like any of them. Being gay is not a pathology; being like them, is.
jim
The funniest Clinton footage I ever saw was him sitting with his head in his hands, watching some speech at this year's Democratic Convention. He was sort of squinting his eyes and looking really serious like,"Just wait 'til I get up there to speak and straighten this shit for you people."
It was like Achilles sulking in his tent over somebody stealing his girl while the Trojan War rages on and on outside. Only in Clinton's case it was about the media supposedly mistreating his wife before Obama outclassed her.
I felt like saying, "Listen to the things this woman is saying! She won't rule out nuking Afghanistan! She says she would 'obliterate' Iran if they attacked Israel! She says she's not going to drop out of the race because Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June!"
I still can't believe her candidacy actually happened. Bill Clinton is the guy who wanted to be like JFK since the day he was born, only Clinton didn't look as pretty so he had to be "smart."
Sometimes dumb is better.
i have told many folks, many times, that all of us, no matter the unit, served with closeted, or not so closeted gays. i know that i did.
frankly, the only real difference between us was our taste in bangkok hookers.
i was proud to know the guys i served with. still am.
The gay issue can be used as a club, as I witnessed it.
A colonel took command of a group in Germany in 1968 and was truly unpopular with his subordinates. His assistant adjutant outed him to the CID which walked in on him and the group chaplain in the BOQ. The corps HQ handled this discretely and had the colonel retired and he and his wife headed back to the states literally overnight. I, at the corps HQ, only heard the full story over several months, and even then had to put the pieces together myself.
The complete story was out in the kaserne but it took Overseas Weekly several months to pick up on it. Typical scandal of the times.
One of the major concerns was the ability to blackmail gays into revealing classified information.
mike,
If Schroer were still in uniform, this would be another can of worms.
We are only talking of Col. Schroer's bias suit vs. the gov't after leaving the service. Her sexual reassignment would not have impinged upon her job with the Library of Congress.
The issue of gays serving in the military is another matter. One's sexuality should be moot point and a private matter.
Military service is a job, and as such, the workplace is no proper venue for bias on the basis of sexual affiliation. The baseline is, can one perform the duties required of the job? Hopefully, discretion in private matters would be assumed across the board.
I personally am opposed to having women in line infantry units due to our socialization. But in such units, I see no reason to prohibit gay men from service. The issue I presume is fear of sexual harassment(?) But gays do not have provenance over predatory sexual behavior.
Discretion should be the requirement and exploitation, regardless of affiliation, should be the thing prohibited.
Spookwatch,
They are all divas.
MB,
In a nutshell. . .
Rick98,
As I'm sure you know, the incidence of homosexuality in primates is between 3-10%. Homophobia is a fear trumped up by a god-fearing society which also fears temptation, among other things. (Please don't throw me in the briar patch.") But as you say, you never caught the virus.
On a purely rational level, why would anyone choose homosexuality in such a homophobic society? Next question: even if it were a choice, vs. a biological imperative, who should care? Why must we always have our scapegoats?
Live and let live. We are all brothers. That is what the Good Book teaches, no?
p.s.--I do not share Ranger's disdain of President Clinton. I find the anti-Clintonian posture to be unreasonable.
Look here, and i admit this is somewhat sexist: i don't trust women to be objective about bill (or hillary) clinton. bill clinton's charisma and effect on women was very similar to JFK's, only more cerebral and less physical, which meant he came off extrememly well on television and in his oratory. so let's first take a look at JFK as an analogue of the Clinton charisma.
JFK is one of the most - if not THE most - popular presidents in terms of how he is remembered. and it is rare to meet a woman, right or left, who has a fully negative opinion on President Kennedy.
the problem was that the whole Kennedy political machine was the most financially corrupt of the twentieth century. JFK's wealthy father bought the Chicago vote (via organized crime) in the very close 1960 presidential election, effectively purchasing the presidency for his son. but it doesn't end there. In his book The Dark Side of Camelot, Seymour Hersh - the same journalist who exposed the My Lai massacre - details an almost unimaginable level of corruption in the Kennedy administration. for instance, federal contrators would often arrive in the oval office with briefcases full of money in order to get the contracts for which they frequently overbid their competitors.
less well known is the fact that kennedy ordered j. edgar hoover's FBI to "investigate" martin luther king, knowing full well that the FBI was at that time capable of destroying the reputation or even the life of those they considered enemies of the state.
finally, there is the issue of JFK's almost unimaginably reckless affairs while in office with innumerable women (frequently hookers) who could easily have compromised the president's ability to govern should those affairs habe become public.
yet, as i said before, the camelot charisma has blinded many of us to the dirty facts. and the same sort of mystique and nostalgia about the clinton years is now a cancerous defect in the democratic party that may eventually cost them the 2008 election, which should have been a slam dunk.
clinton - like the roman emperor augustus - was actually a brilliant domestic administrator, but the unflagging devotion of his followers rendered him politically invincible while he systematically set back the foreign policy efforts of the U.S. by at least a decade.
the fact is, clinton's foreign policy led directly to the current global conflict relating to terrorism. he gutted the cia's operational capacity to such an extent that, for instance, they mistakenly directed the military to destroy the chinese embassy in yugoslavia, clinton also galvanized the al qaeda cult by authorizing cruise missile strikes on some tents in afghanistan and a pharmaceutical factory in sudan. he even laid the groundwork for the current escalating situation with russia by trying to fight genocide in the former yugoslavia, a staunch russian ethnic, religious, and political ally, with sustained airstrikes and very few ground troops. this is not even mentioning the disaster at the branch davidian compound, which energized domestic terrorism, leading to the nightmare at the murrah building in oklahoma city.
bush is incompetent and unpopular.
yet clinton is and was extremely popular here and abroad, despite his major degree of culpability for the current international crisis. and i blame this phenomenon on his politically seductive effect on his fervent female (and male) admirers. if the american public had assailed clinton's policies with the same intensity they do to bush, the last seven years and and nine months would, i am certain, have turned out very differently.
Lisa;
You are truly the only sane one among all of us kibitzers.
THE SOLDIER'S HEART, THE
SOLDIER'S SPIRIT, THE
SOLDIER'S SOUL IS
EVERYTHING, UNLESS THE
SOLDIER'S SOUL SUSTAINS
HIM, HE CANNOT BE RELIED
ON AND WILL FAIL HIMSELF,
HIS COMMANDER AND HIS
COUNTRY IN THE END.
GENERAL GEORGE C. MARSHALL
I see no distinction when it comes to the heart and soul of a warrior, what that soldier's sexual being might be. Regardless of Col. Schroer's sexual identity, I believe she must have the heart and soul of a warrior...and THAT is all that matters to THIS soldier.
Mike,
Thank you:)
M.C.,
Apropos choice.
Having the correct heart and the capability to execute the mission seem the only reasonable standards of concern here. Proper comportment and discretion are expected of any servicemen or government employee.
What do Arthur Miller, Joe DiMaggio, and John F. Kennedy all have in common?
Oh dont lean on me man, cause you cant afford the ticket
Im back on suffragette city
Oh dont lean on me man
Cause you aint got time to check it
You know my suffragette city
Is outta sight...shes all right
Hey Jim and Lisa,
I think you need to check fire on the SOCNET and ShadowSpear references. You're just wasting your time with certain cowards that run both sites. They and another Site (Professional Soldiers) are run like a high school cool guy clique. I have been busy with my Mom who dying of terminal cancer so I don't have time to post much. Some of the SOCNOIDS still claim you're not the real deal but that's par for the course for those cowards. It's been fun. If you don't agree with those most fat old guys living off thier past reps they'll find something wrong our pull whiny little high school style pranks to get you booted or as one guy did threaten your life behind their keyboard. I can't WAIT to meet that guy. LOL Everything you and I have written about has basically come to pass and if these guys don't want to be a part of the solution but wish to remain with their heads up their asses I say let em. The best thing to do is ignore them. It won't be soon before Real Patriots like us are running things, and then can get a handle on fixing all the screwed up shit these bozos advocated and condoned.
SOCWHO? SHADOWWHAT??? PROSOLDIERBLOWWHOM??? ha ha ha
William Hazen
Wow ... I guess I would have lump myself into your formation.
I have learned the hard way that shooting folks is not always the best way to get things done, but it is necessary some times, but rarely.
If I could end the wars by being the first American Suicide Bomber, I would gladly do it. Not that I really want to like blow myself, but if I can save countless lives throughout the world by clicking the cap, I would do it. I am a Ranger.
I don't think it will be long now. We will be authorized to cross the border and capture OBL.
That ... I hope ... will be the beginning of the end.
Thank you for doing this blog.
RLTW.
Frog
PS. I am still looking for Phoenix ... Ranger Grindall.
MK,
Welcome to RAW.I'm always proud and happy to meet another thinking Ranger.
jim
Wow ... I guess I would have lump myself into your formation.
I have learned the hard way that shooting folks is not always the best way to get things done, but it is necessary some times, but rarely.
If I could end the wars by being the first American Suicide Bomber, I would gladly do it. Not that I really want to like blow myself, but if I can save countless lives throughout the world by clicking the cap, I would do it. I am a Ranger.
I don't think it will be long now. We will be authorized to cross the border and capture OBL.
That ... I hope ... will be the beginning of the end.
Thank you for doing this blog.
RLTW.
Frog
PS. I am still looking for Phoenix ... Ranger Grindall.
Wow ... I guess I would have lump myself into your formation.
I have learned the hard way that shooting folks is not always the best way to get things done, but it is necessary some times, but rarely.
If I could end the wars by being the first American Suicide Bomber, I would gladly do it. Not that I really want to like blow myself, but if I can save countless lives throughout the world by clicking the cap, I would do it. I am a Ranger.
I don't think it will be long now. We will be authorized to cross the border and capture OBL.
That ... I hope ... will be the beginning of the end.
Thank you for doing this blog.
RLTW.
Frog
PS. I am still looking for Phoenix ... Ranger Grindall.
Wow ... I guess I would have lump myself into your formation.
I have learned the hard way that shooting folks is not always the best way to get things done, but it is necessary some times, but rarely.
If I could end the wars by being the first American Suicide Bomber, I would gladly do it. Not that I really want to like blow myself, but if I can save countless lives throughout the world by clicking the cap, I would do it. I am a Ranger.
I don't think it will be long now. We will be authorized to cross the border and capture OBL.
That ... I hope ... will be the beginning of the end.
Thank you for doing this blog.
RLTW.
Frog
PS. I am still looking for Phoenix ... Ranger Grindall.
Wow ... I guess I would have lump myself into your formation.
I have learned the hard way that shooting folks is not always the best way to get things done, but it is necessary some times, but rarely.
If I could end the wars by being the first American Suicide Bomber, I would gladly do it. Not that I really want to like blow myself, but if I can save countless lives throughout the world by clicking the cap, I would do it. I am a Ranger.
I don't think it will be long now. We will be authorized to cross the border and capture OBL.
That ... I hope ... will be the beginning of the end.
Thank you for doing this blog.
RLTW.
Frog
PS. I am still looking for Phoenix ... Ranger Grindall.
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