{"id":886,"date":"2010-03-17T02:10:03","date_gmt":"2010-03-17T09:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=886"},"modified":"2010-03-17T02:10:03","modified_gmt":"2010-03-17T09:10:03","slug":"iraq-and-afghanistan-vets-ok-with-gay-troops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/03\/17\/iraq-and-afghanistan-vets-ok-with-gay-troops\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq and Afghanistan Vets OK with Gay Troops"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new poll surveying veterans yielded results that defy so-called common wisdom.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"dadt\"<\/a> As the Pentagon prepares to survey soldiers about President Obama\u2019s decision to repeal Don\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell, a new poll of military personnel who served in the Afghanistan or Iraq wars has finds that sexual orientation is \u201cnot a burning issue that overwhelms veterans\u2019 lives.\u201d <\/p>\n

The new poll, commissioned by The Vet Voice Foundation and conducted jointly by Republican and Democratic pollsters, finds that most veterans are \u201ccomfortable around gay and lesbian people<\/a>, believe that being gay or lesbian has no bearing on a service member\u2019s ability to perform their duties, and would find it acceptable if gay and lesbian people were allowed to serve openly in the military.\u201d Fifty-eight percent of veterans said they served alongside gays or lesbians, and only 22 percent thought they had not<\/a>: <\/p>\n

\u2013 60% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans believe that being gay or lesbian \u201chas no bearing on a service member\u2019s ability to perform their duties<\/span>.\u201d Only 29% disagree. <\/p>\n

\u2013 73% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans say it is \u201cpersonally acceptable to them if gay and lesbian people were allowed to serve openly in the military<\/span>.\u201d Only a quarter (25%) would find it unacceptable. <\/p>\n

\u2013 73% Iraq and Afghanistan veterans say \u201cthey are personally comfortable in the presence of gays and lesbians<\/span>.\u201d Only a quarter (23%) is uncomfortable, and hardly anyone is very uncomfortable (only 7%). <\/p>\n

The survey, which sampled 45% self-identified Republicans and just 20% Democrats, suggests that military personnel are more comfortable serving alongside openly gay and lesbian troops than previously thought\u2026 [emphasis original<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Think Progress<\/a>><\/p>\n

Since it\u2019s now clear that our troops have no qualms about serving alongside gay and lesbian service people, the only people remaining opposed to the repeal of DADT are homophobic bigots from the rabid religious right and their GOP lackeys.  This injustice has gone on far too long.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new poll surveying veterans yielded results that defy so-called common wisdom. As the Pentagon prepares to survey soldiers about President Obama\u2019s decision to repeal Don\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell, a new poll of military personnel who served in the Afghanistan or Iraq wars has finds that sexual orientation is \u201cnot a burning issue that overwhelms […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}