one act that takes more guts than many. thanks for opening doors for us all.

Thank Staff Sgr. Alva both for serving our country and for taking a stand so that all citizens can have equality.

Those who once thought like Frank were opposed to blacks being able to serve in the military too.  Thankfully we live in a progressive nation.

Does an openly gay man actually think he is going to be accepted while showering, changing clothes, and sleeping in the same barracks as straight men?

Why should straight soldiers have to accept it? Should female soldiers be forced to accept men in their showers? Why not?  Obviously because most women don’t want to feel exposed and be gawked at or feel sexually objectified by strangers while they are undressed in a vulnerable setting.  It’s the same reason why straight men should not have to accept openly gay men in those circumstances. So are we going to create seperate gay barracks for them? Will we have different gay shower times?

Serving in the US military is a privilege, not a right. The military is there to provide for the defense of the country, not to provide career opportunities for anyone, including gays.  Allowing gays in openly is going to cost a lot of money in many ways, hurt morale and unit cohesion, and do nothing to improve the military’s ability to protect the country. Therefore it is a bad idea.

If you are gay and want to serve in the military, keep your mouth shut about your sexuality, don’t date other soldiers, and leave well enough alone. If you can’t handle that, then you obviously aren’t really willing to sacrifice for your country, so choose another career.

This guy is brave, and not just on the battlefield. Bravo Sgt. Alva.

Very good and I would like to add this. Gay people serving in the military is nothing new. Gay people showing extreme bravery and duty to the nation is not new. Depending upon the merits of the nations wars this may be a good thing or not.

I had friends who served in numerous bombing raids in WWII in a “ball turret”. For those who don’t know about a “ball turret”, they had no communication with the plane and no emergency exit. The people who served in them were trapped and their danger was not over after they cleared the flack as if anything happened to the landing gear they were not going to die. Why would any country ask this of their men and then tell them, but we don’t want to know “who you are’?

A large number of the people hostile to Gays openingly in the military are people with personality disorders and probably largely are people who abuse women, children and neighbors with their sick insecurities and need to feel “like top dogs”. A man who doubts his manhood so much that he fears other peoples sexuality, including women is not much of a man or more importantly, not much of an Adult.

Good for you Sgt. Alva.  I whole-heartedly agree.  You fought and you should have your rights.  I’m still confused (as a straight person) why straight people feel that gay people or their preferences would be harmful to a community, a military organization or a nation!  So what, I mean unless your “having fun” in the front yard (which by the way would be true for straight people also) who are you hurting?  I am saddened that you need to fight for your rights AGAIN, as they should be already acknowledged.  Either way, GOOD LUCK, take care, and have a good one.  Know this: PEOPLE DO SUPPORT YOU aside from what SOME idiot straight people say.

The irony of this and so many other things that the facists have chosen to use to devide this American society is that most, if not all, the critics have never seen the elephant. Most, if not all, are perfectly willing to let “some one else’s kid” do the fighting. Most, if not all, are just so full of hate they have to make up things to hate.

I have never been able to figure out just exactly how giving Gay citizens equal opportunity to die for this country is a bad thing. In fact most, if not all, the folks referenced above should probably prefer that Gay and Lesbian folks do their fighting and dying for them because that would get rid of a few of them at least.

There were young fellas in the bush with us in Viet Nam. We all knew it and no one I knew of cared one way or the other. Mostly we were glad to have the body there to help out when our days got grim.

One of my readers commented recently that gay rights are ’special rights’, and since Alva is a gay member of the United States military I am wondering if my reader feels that this patriotic American has any reason to want justice.  Alva is bravely fighting to end the bigoted notion of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ that has cost the U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars, and ended the military careers of many citizens.  While Alva was ready to give his life for his country my reader sits in America hoping to deny ’special rights’ to patriotic citizens.  One really has to wonder what goes on in the heads of bigoted conservatives.