QSU Event Summary
Oct. 29th, 2008 01:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
foolish_m0rtalSo, I'm in the QSU (Queer Student Union) at UVa, and they always have some pretty interesting seminars. (Video Game Wednesdays are always win) The problem is, I am usually busy with school and...school. Basically. SCHOOL.
There was a really neat seminar today that I made extra sure I made time for- it was a reception and lecture for this military guy (Colonel Leonard) who had worked for the intelligence department, jumps from helicopters, teaches SCUBA diving, was sent overseas as a military representative to some of the embassies. All sorts of cool stuff. And if he hasn't pwned you already, he has a degree in law.
So he's finally retired and now that he's out from under the hanging blade, he's like "Hey, guess what, guys? I'm kick-ass! And I'm gay. What now?!"
He told us about his experiences in the military and talked a little bit about what he does now. He volunteers in a legal service for people effected by DADT. D00d, DADT totally SUCKS. I mean, I never knew how vicious it was. I never even thought it was a law- I thought it was just an unspoken agreement. I don't ask about you, you don't say anything. It's all good. I thought it was more of a protectionary clause to keep sexual minorities from getting hate bashed.
Nope. Lies.
Or rather, half truths.
The people from other countries that attended the meeting expressed concise thoughtful opinions that America was governed by a bunch of backwards freaks. All their countries had no such law, and they had trouble grasping the fact that unions were not acknowledged, death of a soldier in combat did not entitle a partner to benefits. (partner could not even exist, according to DADT, which will be discussed later)
One of the students that attended came on a scholarship from the Israeli military. Not knowing he was gay, the U.S. military gave him a scholarship to come over here for service for a year. Israel has an open policy, apparently. As he told it, one of the higher up tactical officers just got married to his boyfriend in Canada. And of course, because we are all mature worldly individuals, we all said "Canada! LOL! Of course."
This is how DADT goes down: The soldier in question says NOTHING. If he/she says anything at ANY time and someone can prove that they're gay or they get it in writing from an email or blog, etc. the soldier is FIRED on the spot. I did NOT know about this part of the act. Totally stupid! And after getting kicked out of the military, the guy/girl has to schlep around in civilian jobs with a "Warning: gay person" discharge in hand. Good luck getting a job there.
And Clinton was really duped when he agreed to the compromise of DADT, because before that, there wasn't actually a law restricting this kind of stuff. Now that he had to sign one into effect, it will take a WHOLE lot to get it reversed. And like segregation, someone can't just set up a case to challenge the law (like Brown v. Board of Education and the like) because the courts don't want to deal with it. They pass it off as a government and military court issue and not their field. Why? Associations, I don't know.
There is one case in Florida of a retired Air Force nurse who has had all these commendations for bravery and dedication to her work. She even got a commendation signed by Bush (ironic). So she was lined up for retirement when someone found out she was a lesbian. So she got fired. No benefits. Nothing. The standard argument is that people like her are "detrimental to moral and troop cohesion," but the woman's been saving lives and air lifting people out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Yeah, really detrimental and harmful to society there. I'm waiting to see what will happen with this case. She got turned down by the judge in Florida, so she appealed to a three judge panel in the ninth district (good choice), and the judges sided with her, for once. Usually they don't even try to look like they're listening. The case happened in May, so we'll see how it processes.
Leonard's experiences were interesting too. When he was in the foreign embassies, the way he put it "if you weren't a monk already, you had to really be a monk over there," because everyone's always in everyone else's business and trying to get dirt on other countries' personnel. He had no personal life whatsoever. He doesn't have one now . He was in the army for 20 years, so he really couldn't do any, as he put it "gay acts" (I love quoting him. He is hilarious) such as dating, etc. And worst of all, he couldn't apply for certain jobs he wanted or was nominated for because part of the hiring process was a lie detector test and "in those days they would just flat out ask you." I think I saw the most disappointment in him then. (like all those AU Stargate fanfictions where McKay is in some other job because some unexpected happenstance prevented him from pursuing astrophysics/mechanical engineering)
Soo, let's end it on a happy Stargate note. It was an interesting seminar, and above were just a few points (watered down into FM speak) that were in the lecture. Also thanks to my friends in the QSU (there are a lot of engineers in there. Coincidence?...) who helped me study for Chemistry. Damn you, lattice energy and Lewis Dot Diagrams. I do not want to interpret your bonds and lone electron pairs into trigonal pyramidal structures. Your angles are less than 109.5 and shame me.
There was a really neat seminar today that I made extra sure I made time for- it was a reception and lecture for this military guy (Colonel Leonard) who had worked for the intelligence department, jumps from helicopters, teaches SCUBA diving, was sent overseas as a military representative to some of the embassies. All sorts of cool stuff. And if he hasn't pwned you already, he has a degree in law.
So he's finally retired and now that he's out from under the hanging blade, he's like "Hey, guess what, guys? I'm kick-ass! And I'm gay. What now?!"
He told us about his experiences in the military and talked a little bit about what he does now. He volunteers in a legal service for people effected by DADT. D00d, DADT totally SUCKS. I mean, I never knew how vicious it was. I never even thought it was a law- I thought it was just an unspoken agreement. I don't ask about you, you don't say anything. It's all good. I thought it was more of a protectionary clause to keep sexual minorities from getting hate bashed.
Nope. Lies.
Or rather, half truths.
The people from other countries that attended the meeting expressed concise thoughtful opinions that America was governed by a bunch of backwards freaks. All their countries had no such law, and they had trouble grasping the fact that unions were not acknowledged, death of a soldier in combat did not entitle a partner to benefits. (partner could not even exist, according to DADT, which will be discussed later)
One of the students that attended came on a scholarship from the Israeli military. Not knowing he was gay, the U.S. military gave him a scholarship to come over here for service for a year. Israel has an open policy, apparently. As he told it, one of the higher up tactical officers just got married to his boyfriend in Canada. And of course, because we are all mature worldly individuals, we all said "Canada! LOL! Of course."
This is how DADT goes down: The soldier in question says NOTHING. If he/she says anything at ANY time and someone can prove that they're gay or they get it in writing from an email or blog, etc. the soldier is FIRED on the spot. I did NOT know about this part of the act. Totally stupid! And after getting kicked out of the military, the guy/girl has to schlep around in civilian jobs with a "Warning: gay person" discharge in hand. Good luck getting a job there.
And Clinton was really duped when he agreed to the compromise of DADT, because before that, there wasn't actually a law restricting this kind of stuff. Now that he had to sign one into effect, it will take a WHOLE lot to get it reversed. And like segregation, someone can't just set up a case to challenge the law (like Brown v. Board of Education and the like) because the courts don't want to deal with it. They pass it off as a government and military court issue and not their field. Why? Associations, I don't know.
There is one case in Florida of a retired Air Force nurse who has had all these commendations for bravery and dedication to her work. She even got a commendation signed by Bush (ironic). So she was lined up for retirement when someone found out she was a lesbian. So she got fired. No benefits. Nothing. The standard argument is that people like her are "detrimental to moral and troop cohesion," but the woman's been saving lives and air lifting people out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Yeah, really detrimental and harmful to society there. I'm waiting to see what will happen with this case. She got turned down by the judge in Florida, so she appealed to a three judge panel in the ninth district (good choice), and the judges sided with her, for once. Usually they don't even try to look like they're listening. The case happened in May, so we'll see how it processes.
Leonard's experiences were interesting too. When he was in the foreign embassies, the way he put it "if you weren't a monk already, you had to really be a monk over there," because everyone's always in everyone else's business and trying to get dirt on other countries' personnel. He had no personal life whatsoever. He doesn't have one now . He was in the army for 20 years, so he really couldn't do any, as he put it "gay acts" (I love quoting him. He is hilarious) such as dating, etc. And worst of all, he couldn't apply for certain jobs he wanted or was nominated for because part of the hiring process was a lie detector test and "in those days they would just flat out ask you." I think I saw the most disappointment in him then. (like all those AU Stargate fanfictions where McKay is in some other job because some unexpected happenstance prevented him from pursuing astrophysics/mechanical engineering)
Soo, let's end it on a happy Stargate note. It was an interesting seminar, and above were just a few points (watered down into FM speak) that were in the lecture. Also thanks to my friends in the QSU (there are a lot of engineers in there. Coincidence?...) who helped me study for Chemistry. Damn you, lattice energy and Lewis Dot Diagrams. I do not want to interpret your bonds and lone electron pairs into trigonal pyramidal structures. Your angles are less than 109.5 and shame me.
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-30 03:53 am (UTC)You aren't actually going into military stuff are you? Because that IS one of the few places it's still a real problem. (I guess they're all concerned you might have a crush on your commanding officer and NOT fight better like the Greeks thought... And don't get me started on the Spartans! if people who keep shouting 300 quotes actually KNEW what the Spartans were like, they'd probably think twice about shouting "this is SPARTAAAAA" in public.)
I generally seem a lot less concerned about "gay stuff" than most people in my religious denomination, I notice. (meaning I don't walk on the other side of the street when a guy starts speaking higher=pitched than he should and carries a handbag) But I know for certain if I mentioned half the stuff I write here, I'd probably get a nasty label, even though I'm actually straight... (Writing slash is NOT approved of)
I know I could never even be thought to "sympathise" with gays as long as I'm also in "christian" groups because they wouldn't take that as just "sympathy' from me. half the people who don't know me well think I'm a lesbian or at least bi, and even repeatedly telling them I'm not doesn't seem to make a dent sometimes. (It's the hair, I think...) To actually "opnely hang out with such people" (not like I hide it) would just get me shot and brick'd and repeatedly smacked by my fine brothers and sisters in the Lord. You can either be one or the other, but the two are seen as mutually exclusive and there is no crossover with this sort of thing. (And of course, to most of "my kind" the only people they realize are gay are the "openly" or "flamboyant" ones. It's pretty pitiful how naive we can be--it's always so much easier to believe it's some 'seperate species' and doesn't happen to 'normal folk' or even that it "happens" in the same way some kind of rare wasting disease does...)
It just doesn't make sense to me sometimes. I should be allowed to worry for my friends who are sometimes too scared to even mention to me that they like the same gender. I should be ALLOWED to accept that and genuinely offer my condolances if they break up with their girlfriend or boyfriend. I mean. Why am I expected to take divorce in stride but it's somehow "unethical" for me to have friends who dabble over the gender lines a bit? Sometimes my religion's common concensuses (is that a word?) of 'ethical' behavior give me headaches...
Sorry this turned into a rant...
It's just stuff like this sort of makes me wish I could hang out with you IRL and try to beat down some barriers.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-02 12:03 am (UTC)um...not sure what that means, actually. "true ways?" Um...
I sympathize with your attempted rise against the system and the futility with which you sink back, systematically beaten down by the system. It seems very dystopian.
I noticed today that even people who accept gay people expect them to be a certain way. Like, they were women, so they were all like "I want a gay best friend! Gay people are the BEST!"
And you know, there may be gay people out there who are total bastards. (guy from "The Andromeda Strain" miniseries. The whole portrayal of gay people as villains is over and done with, don't get me wrong; he's working for the good guys. He's just a jerk.)
I feel like I have a lot of freedom in my position in this issue (my religion doesn't tell me what to do, I'm finally surrounded by people in college who aren't closed minded, I don't give a damn, etc.), and for reasons you've described above, you seem more constricted. And that really sucks.
We could be a superhero team. The Breakers. Or the Barrier Kids. A subsystem of the G.E.E.K faction, of course. It could be like S.H.I.E.L.D!
no subject
Date: 2008-11-05 01:45 am (UTC)Oh no. I've become dystopian?! I must find a perscription to counter this! (XDD)
And yes, people assume the "gay best friend" will give them shopping and boy advice and basically be like another girl. It's kind of annoying to me. I mean...when you do that you don't really allow for that person to be anything other than a stereotype. A gay guy doesn't HAVE to be 'one of the girls' to like guys. But that's the stereotype in literature and even movies, which still "make fun of it" by buying into that one stereotype.
Chances are, if you're friend's actually gay, you probably don't know it unless they "come out" to you, and the inclination's still usually in the direction of keeping it quiet. The gay or bi people I know usually wait a while before they casually let it slip to me. And I generally don't mind or care. They're my friends. Even if they're not, I owe it to them to accept that they still have at least as much of a desire to be seen as a "unique person" as I do. I owe it to them, just as I do to anyone else, to assume they have non-stereotypical traits. Even if they TRY to put themselves in such a mold.
(I'm also having a "november the fifth" party tomorrow and watching "V for Vendetta." Illustration of how far it's gone from portraying gays as villains right there. ^_~)
I'm "constricted" only insofar as people in my religion tend to comply to their own "stereotype." As i'm not a person who's particularly hesitant about voicing my opinions in a fairly non-malicious way, and I tend to show I put thought into things, even so, they sometimes have no choice but to warily "accept" me since I still have a "credible profession of faith." (That is, I still follow appropriate doctrine in other areas. I just have a wider "social" option. Heh. Not ALL christians are republicans, anyway, and that's not a personal statement, right there.)
It's just a personal annoyance. I wish people would think, and I wish people "freed" in my religion would still see people outside it as people, regardless of what they "seem to be." My state of thought is, if Christ decides to use someone like me, there's no reason why He can't decide to use someone I find distasteful, such as a pedophile. (Just an example. I'd typically even treat pedophiles better than some christians treat gays. I think what they do is WRONG, I just don't think that makes them inhuman. Everyone's human, and you don't treat humans like trash under any circumstance.)
Does this make you Iron Man? (Was Iron Man even a member of S.H.I.E.L.D.? I'm a little more comics-illiterate than I should be considering how much I hang out with geeks...)
Is there a snippy antihero out there for me to impersonate in those circumstances. (I'm more chaotic-good than anything, I think. *sigh* And I don't even TRY to be "good", it just seems to happen...)
no subject
Date: 2008-11-12 05:57 am (UTC)That's what I hate hate hate. My club calling themselves the Queer Student Union. I wouldn't ever stand somebody calling me queer. I wouldn't call myself queer. I feel it's really derogative. And when we painted our university graffiti bridge for Coming Out Week, we painted it in pink, purple, and rainbow colours. I feel so uneasy about it.
Haha, I love that we both watched V for Vendetta on Nov. 5.
No, this does not make me Iron Man. I am not half as hott. I hope to be Oracle someday. (if gods permit it, minus the painful tragic crippling. I was like NOOOO! Batgirl!!)
Snippy antihero...we'll have to look into this more.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 06:58 pm (UTC)Well what I would have done afterwards is paper said bridge with militant fliers supposedly from the "Young Childhood Education Majors" ranting about how wonderful pink is, and ponies too, and how everything should be pink. (Because it's just a fact of nature that all girls at least once, somewhere between the ages of two and seven, will think pink is the greatest color in the world and should cover everything.)
...Then follow it up with threatening letters the next week from the "militant apathist league" threatening to blow up the cars in the parking lot next week in a demonstration. (Anyon who actually knows what "apathy" means will know just how passe it would be to show up in the first place. Anyone who doesn't know the meaning of the word and shows up will get attacked by the concerned security guards.) But you know, people in "Campus Crusade" are not allowed to join gay pride groups or they REALLY call your parents and act concerned. *sweatdrop*
(But I DID get approached by a bloke asking if I wanted to help gay rights today. Unfortunately I was on the way to class, and couldn't help him at the moment, but that's just more proof that I get confused more often for a lesbian than for what I REALLy am--which is a cheerful, poorly dressed religious maniac... I did NOT stuff a tract down the guy's throat, nor did I beat him to death with my copy of the new testement. I STILL had to resist the urge to give him a hug, or be late to class and buy him some food, then come back...I mean...that's a rough job, trying to get people to sign up for crap...)
And see? Great minds! Novembder the fifth should have triggered everyone. (I sort of half-watched it and mostly spent the time cutting out decorative metal fish for my art installation project in December... But my mom came in in the final battle scene and squealed about the violence, and I tried to explain all the symbolic significances to her and mostly failed. *snicker* She has to watch the thing from the start.)
If you're Oracle, then does that make me Huntress? (Dude! My home life must be fsck'd up! I at least want Halle Berry!Catwoman for my mom though, so I can get scolorships AND be pretty! You can pick your choice of ignoring-and-bad-parenting Bruce Wayne.)
Yeah, Lafayel WISHES he was snippy antihero, but all he is is annoying. Rayyu is "antihero", but he's not snippy, he's just quietly and sort of accidentally ruthless and not too patient with social crap.
...Where are we going to find a REAL snippy antihero? (Afterthought: Oh. Dubbiel doesn't count.)