Marines Now Recruting At Gay Community Center

[Tx4obama]

Marines Hit the Ground Running in Seeking Recruits at Gay Center

TULSA, Okla. — Master Sgt. Anthony Henry, a top Marine recruiting trainer for the southwestern United States, pulled up to Tulsa’s biggest gay community center on Tuesday morning and left his Chevy where he could make a fast getaway. “I have an exit strategy,” he said. “I know where my choke points are, I’ve strategically parked my car right on the curbside, I have an out.”

But as it happened, one of the strangest days in the history of the United States Marine Corps unfolded without the protests and insults that Sergeant Henry had feared. Sergeant Henry, who had been invited to set up a recruiting booth on the first day of the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell” at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center in downtown Tulsa, instead spent it in quiet conversation with a trickle of gay women who came in to ask about joining the Marines.

“It’s your business and you don’t have to share it,” Sergeant Henry told Ariel Pratt, 20, who asked whether she would face discrimination in the military as a lesbian serving openly. “But you’re also free to be at the mall with your girlfriend.”

SNIP

The Marines were the service most opposed to ending the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, but they were the only one of five invited branches of the military to turn up with their recruiting table and chin-up bar at the center Tuesday morning. Although Marines pride themselves on being the most testosterone-fueled of the services, they also ferociously promote their view of themselves as the best. With the law now changed, the Marines appear determined to prove that they will be better than the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard in recruiting gay, lesbian and bisexual service members.

Full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/21/us/marine-recruiters-visit-gay-center-in-oklahoma.html?_r=3&hp

[johnnypneumatic]

1. soon "he's gay as a marine" will be a common idiom

[Kennah]

2. He's too gay for the Navy. Send him to the Marines.

[Raster]

8. Already is

:wink:

[Skittles]

3. WOO!

:thumbsup:

[Joe the Revelator]

4. That's pretty cool

[FreeState]

5. Unrec for a Gay Center that's forgotten about our trans sisters and brothers

Until they can serve I can't support recruitment at our community centers.

[lonestarnot]

6. Well where else are they going to look for the best and the brightest?

[jberryhill]

7. Anita Bryant was right! She warned they'd be recruiting our youth!

[annabanana]

9. heh heh heh. . good one. . . .n/t

[trumad]

10. “I know where my choke points are"

Coffee spew on that one.

[GiveMeFreedom]

11. Once a Marine, always a Marine.

I would not be surprised that, as this takes off, gays and lesbians wind up being the deadliest fighters the Marines have. Like all oppressed minority's, they will have something to prove and they will do it better than any expectations one could hope for. Just like WWII and the Japanese Americans?

Never call a Marine a soldier. They are not, they are Marines and very proud of that fact!

As a side note, I remember meeting a tow truck driver who, after a little conversation, told me he also had served in the military like me. I confessed to being a Sailor and proud of my contributions. He smiled and told me that he had also served in the Navy, "The Men's Department". I was confused a bit until he tells me "The Navy's Men's Department is the United States Marine Corp". I nodded my head in agreement and laughed for a week after I heard that.

All respect to those that serve, past, present, and future. Gay or straight.