Brody's Notes... New York Times Interviews Marines After Repeal Passes: “Being Gay Means You Are Kind Of Girly. The Marines Are, You Know, Macho.”

U. S. Marines on patrol in Now Zad, Helmand province, Afghanistan 

Photo By John Moore for Getty Images

By Mark Singer (Washington DC) DEC 20 | New York Times journalists Catherine Einhorn and Karen Zraick in New York, Ian Lovett in Southern California, and Ashley Parker and Eric Schmitt in Washington interviewed Marines on active duty in the wake of the Senate's passage of "Don't Ask-Don't Tell" Saturday, which now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Almost all of Marines interviewed indicated that they had reservations serving with Gay personnel in combat scenarios.

!8 year old Marine Private First Class. Daniel Carias, who grew up in the Bronx in NYC, told the reporters that he has one major concern: 'gay men, he says, should not be allowed to serve in front-line combat units.'

“They won’t hold up well in combat,” he said.

According to the Times, that view, or variations on it, was expressed repeatedly in interviews with Marines around this town, home to Camp Lejeune, and outside Camp Pendleton in Southern California on Sunday.

Most of the approximately two dozen Marines interviewed said they personally did not object to gay men or lesbians serving openly in the military. But many said that introducing the possibility of sexual tension into combat forces would be disruptive a view that had been expressed by the Commandant, General James Amos, in a press conference last Tuesday before the bill was passed.

“Coming from a combat unit, I know that in Afghanistan we’re packed in a sardine can,” said Cpl. Trevor Colbath, 22, a Pendleton-based Marine who returned from Afghanistan in August. “There’s no doubt in my mind that openly gay Marines can serve, it’s just different in a combat unit. Maybe they should just take the same route they take with females and stick them to noncombat units.”

Another young Marine, 19 year old Alex Tuck from Birmingham, Alabama, told the journalists he had no doubt that gay Marines would not only perform well in combat but would also be accepted by a vast majority of Marines. But he warned,

“Showers will be awkward,” Private Tuck said, expressing a worry mentioned by just about every Marine interviewed. 

But a friend of Private Tuck’s injected a note of skepticism. “It won’t be totally accepted,” said Private Justin Rea, 18, from Warren, Michigan said:

"Being gay means you are kind of girly. The Marines are, you know, macho.”

Echoing the sentiments of Marine Captain Nathan Cox, who strongly disagreed with the Commandant's public reservations about openly Gay personnel serving in combat in a column last Friday in The Washington Post, The Times reporters quote a Marine officer just back from Afghanistan who said he would not be surprised if some combat soldiers in small outposts wanted to sleep separately from openly gay troops. But this officer emphasized that what would truly earn acceptance for gay troops would be fighting well.

“Honestly, what I care about is how good a gunner they are,” he said. “If an individual is performing well on the battlefield, people won’t care.”

Read the entire New York Times article here: [ Link ]