DADT repeal brings equality, diversity to NU

The ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell' repeal occurred on September 20^th of this year, but it continues to cause much elation on campus, according to both corps and civilian students at NorwichUniversity.

    However, thanks to the repeal, some Norwichstudents like Joshua Fontanez, a 21-year-old senior political science major from Browns Mills, N.J., are slowly embracing the change the repeal has started.

    "The DADT repeal is probably one of the biggest steps we find so far in my lifetime when it comes to equality," Fontanez said. "Just because DADT was a law doesn't make it right. It was time for it to be changed."

    Fontanez, the president of the NULGBTQA (Norwich University Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Questions and Allies club) on campus, is trying to get more students involved with being advocates for change, but there's still much resistance.

    Fontanez said that the reason for the resistance is that "(Norwichstudents) don't fear persecution from their ROTC commanders or the administration, which would be illegal, but they fear harassment from their friends and other students."

    According to the CBS news website, DADT is a "1993 law that allowed gays to serve (in the military) only so long as they kept their sexual orientation private so as not to make others uncomfortable." (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/20/national/main20108690.shtml)

    Cortnie Williamson, a 20-year-old junior international studies major from Hendersonville, Tenn., agrees with Fontanez's viewpoint.

    "I've seen a lot of conflict with people here (at Norwich) who are contracted or going into the military," Williamson said. "And honestly I don't see what the problem is.  We're Americans, and we have a variety of people in our country anyway."

    Even so, Williamson is aware that change may be hard to bring about. "Yes, our military has always been a certain way," she added, "but just because of somebody's sexual orientation it doesn't mean that they can't do their job as well as somebody who's heterosexual."

    Even if the military has not been tolerant of non-heterosexual sexual orientation in the past, Williamson said students should be.

    "Students shouldn't be afraid to speak out on subjects like DADT because of their race, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation," Williamson said. "Things like that shouldn't matter at Norwich, or in the military, as long as the person still performs their job properly."

    Williamson and Fontanez, as well as other Norwich military and civilian students, have been prepared for the changes the repeal will bring though media such as slideshows, videos and reading material, as well as verbal lectures from authority figures.

    "We were briefed on the change in policy," Fontanez said. "All of the (military branches) did it for clarification. We were told that our sexual orientation no longer matters and that no extremes, like creating separate shower stalls, will be taken."

    Hailey Libbey, a 19-year-old freshman biology and pre-med major from Newport, Vt., is pleased with the DADT repeal because of an injustice that was done to her while serving in the military.

    "The DADT repeal means a lot to me," Libbey said, "because I am personally from the Army and I've always told people that I'm openly gay, and I got discharged because of it."

    Now that the repeal has been processed, Libbey is hoping to rejoin the military at some point in the near future. "Maybe I can reenter the military now," Libbey said. "I'm not sure how that works, but (the repeal) gives me hope for the future."

    At first Libbey hadn't realized that the repeal had succeeded. "I had heard about the repeal, and how it was supposed to go through for years," Libbey said, "but nothing seemed to change (at first)."

    When the repeal did pass Libbey was thrilled. "I was excited because the government realized that (homosexuals) are people too, and that it doesn't matter who we love because we can still fight for our country."

    She added that she's noticed that even after the repeal there have been several cases of homosexual discrimination on campus, specifically in Crawford Hall, where students have used homosexual remarks to degrade others.

    "I think it happens more so in Crawford (Hall) because there's a lot more girls than guys there," Libbey said. "(They say things like) ‘Oh, she's a dyke' or ‘She looks like a boy so she must like girls' and it's not okay now, or at any time."

    According to Libbey, there are a few students at Norwich, both military and civilian, who feel that the DADT repeal is going to negatively impact America's military system, but there are far more who view the repeal as a highly positive historical moment for the people they care about.

    Marie Sare, a 19-year-old sophomore studies in war and peace major from Forestville, Md., echoes Fontanez and Libbey when she said it was time that the repeal succeeded.

    "Personally I'm kind of excited that the repeal has actually gone through," Sare said. "But in high school, when I first heard about it, I was kind of shocked because I had some friends who would be enlisting about a year later, and one of them was gay."

    She went on to say that her gay friend wasn't sure of how things were going to go for him once he joined the military, but she reassured him that all that mattered was that he was doing what he wanted to do.

    John Burkes, a 19-year-old sophomore civil engineer major from Moore, Texas, says he's glad that Americahas finally tackled such a troublesome issue.

    "(The repeal) is really a typical American story when you think about it," Burkes said. "Americais full of times when the underdog comes out on top, and because of that I find it odd that people still discriminate."

    Burkes and Fontanez both used the issues of slavery and religious equality as a comparison when dealing with sexual equality issues.

    "To have someone in the military be willing to lay their life down, whether they're black, white, gay or straight, and not being excepting of them, is something that doesn't make sense," Burkes said. "That's not how Americashould work."

    "(Homosexuals) are to be treated just the way you would treat a woman, an African-American, or someone of a different religion in your unit," Fontanez said. "We're all on the same team."

    Rikki Feightner, an 18-year-old freshman international studies major from Piqua, Ohio, was happy to learn of the repeal.

    "The repeal is something that affects you no matter who you are," Feightner said. "This is a monumental event in history that is going to change not so much the physical appearance of our military, but the internal mentality of it."

    "The soldier's mind is one of the most important tools that you have on the battle field, and that's why our military takes the factors that affect that so seriously," Feightner added. "I think that historically this is a different era that we're entering into."

    Feightner herself has been a victim of the injustice of sexual orientation inequality. "I haven't really been discriminated against here (at Norwich)," she said. "But in high school I was know as ‘that gay kid' because I was the most, and one of the few, who were open (about their sexuality)."

    "It was really difficult to tell my friends," Feightner said, "because some of them initially recoiled from me and wouldn't talk to me for awhile."

    However, Feightner can understand their initial upset over her announcing her sexual orientation. "I used to be very homophobic and very anti-gay for several personal, situational, and religious reasons," Feightner said.

    "For many reasons I was almost completely hateful of that (homosexual) group of people simply because of my own ignorance," Feightner added. "It's not that at that time I couldn't understand, it's that I wasn't willing to understand."

    She added that it was "a shock" finding out that she had been dismissing homosexuality as a negative thing, when in truth she was fighting against who she really is.

    Now, however, Feightner has made peace with the idea of homosexuality. "I started being a lot more open-minded towards it, and then I found out about my own sexuality," she said. "When I started accepting who I was I could then make peace with myself and others."

    Sare shares the same idea as Feightner. "As long as people like (my friend) can be happy and be open about who they are, while still serving (in the military), then that's what should matter," Sare said.

    "Why would you or anyone else want to be discriminated against? As a human being I know I wouldn't want that," Sare added. "We should treat others like we want to be treated."

    Sare's viewpoint is shared with many other students, both corps and civilian, according to Fontanez.

    "(A law that says) because of whom you love or who you are attracted to means that you can't serve our nation is something that should never have been put into place," Fontanez said. "It's very good to see that (DADT) is being removed, because it means more equality in the military now."