Homeland Security Wants to Know if You're Gay

[monsoon]

Of course Reagan didn't call for it. His minions did and for those of us who were watching friends die every week while the government did nothing, in fact fanned the flames of bigotry, these calls were indeed frightening. This article summarizes better than me Reagan's role in the early AIDs epidemic in this country and why we have such absurd rules as preventing Gay men from donating blood when even whores can donate. I did get it wrong however. Reagan remained silent until 1987.

[seicer]

^ ^

Why? It's like asking, why does the government mandate you take off your shoes before you board your flight? Why do they teach us to hide under our school desks in the event of an air-raid or nuclear attack?

Here is a slamming article against Reagan. "Silence equals death" Great, and very sad read. We are still suffering from the effects of "AIDSGATE" and the offspring hysteria that developed from it. Instead of sex education and information regarding safe sex, they teach high schoolers about abstinance and "wait until marriage" crap that simply does not work. Instead of teaching students about rape and other sexual deviants, we face a nation that has an absurdly high rate of rape and sexual battery.

Try going to Japan and seeing how their education system treats this. Children in primary school are taught about sex, safe sex, rape, AIDS, sexual orientation, and etc., and as a result of this improved education, they have one of the lowest rape/sex crime rates in the world -- for an industrialized country.

Something needs to change in the United States. The revolution for change began in the 1970s and was halted by Reagan, Bush, and Bush. My public high-school that I attended cannot even teach about homosexuality or AIDS... This will only breed much ignorance for the future.

[Captain Worley]

^ ^

Why? It's like asking, why does the government mandate you take off your shoes before you board your flight? Why do they teach us to hide under our school desks in the event of an air-raid or nuclear attack?

[erdogs]

When I started with the DoD and went to orientation, they said they used to ask sexual orientation because the military believed gays had a higher risk of being blackmailed. By the time I started working there, in 1989, they'd stopped asking because they had found gays stood no greater risks of blackmail than straights.

So I guess sometime between 1982 and 1989 they stopped, but I got the feeling that it was pretty darn close to 89 that the change was made.

[kayman]

My Army recruiter didn't get that memo. In 92 after I took the written test they gave me a paper to sign and one of the questions was sexual orientation. I failed the physical because of a spine problem I had, I guess it was for the best. I couldn't imagine having to live that double life. I would like to hear from these officials about their rational, it doesn't make sense.

[monsoon]

.....

Try going to Japan and seeing how their education system treats this. Children in primary school are taught about sex, safe sex, rape, AIDS, sexual orientation, and etc., and as a result of this improved education, they have one of the lowest rape/sex crime rates in the world -- for an industrialized country.

Something needs to change in the United States. The revolution for change began in the 1970s and was halted by Reagan, Bush, and Bush. My public high-school that I attended cannot even teach about homosexuality or AIDS... This will only breed much ignorance for the future.

[Choirboy622]

Why does Homeland Security do anything? Certainly not for our security. It is simply a domestic spying agency, perhaps not terribly unlike the KGB in the former Soviet Union. When we have a government run by religious crackpots, this is what we get. Never mind that many of us didn't vote for him either in 2000 or 2004. These are the same crackpots who are promising to veto the Children's State Health Care expansion bill which was passed by Congress yesterday. While the Senate passed it with a veto-proof majority, the House passed it along party lines; so the conservatives will not override the emperor's veto. He isn't afraid it won't be effective--he's afraid it WILL be effective, so he will likely veto it on philosophical grounds.

As for the Europeans who wonder why we don't "do something," we are stuck with him until 2009. We can't do anything until then. Some say he is a lame duck, but I do not believe that. He can still do PLENTY of damage to our country and the rest of the world in the time left.

[charlotte_bon_vivant]

Anyone that has had sex with a man since 1977 fits this definition.

[runawayjim]

i was just thinking about the whole blood donation thing... you're not under oath. they need blood. lie about it. they're supposed to be testing the blood for disease anyway and they can't tell from your blood if you're gay or not. i think saving people is more important than not donating because they won't take you for being gay, so stick it to the "man" and lie about it.

but yes, having any kind of unprotected sex is what they should be looking for, not the gender of your partner. and really, since they're supposed to test all the blood anyways, they shouldn't be even asking any of these questions, especially since they're always in dire need of blood.

[monsoon]

^That would be a risky thing for a Gay man to do especially in these days of reduced rights. If someone made a case out of it you could end up in jail and even if the charges are dropped it certainly isn't worth it. Believe me when I tell you that in most places in the USA the authority openly persecute Gay men by charging them with all kinds of crimes and after they have had their reputation ruined, the charges are simply dropped because the cops know it won't stand up in court. And this doesn't even count the actual experience of being put in jail.

I have written about how I was detained once by the Charlotte police and how I was detained for more than an hour while they tried to humiliate me simply because I was driving near a Gay bar. (search if you want to read about it) This isn't unique to Charlotte as I've know people all over the country with similar experiences.

[nowensone]

but yes, having any kind of unprotected sex is what they should be looking for, not the gender of your partner. and really, since they're supposed to test all the blood anyways, they shouldn't be even asking any of these questions, especially since they're always in dire need of blood.

[JerseyBoy]

My internet history? How the hell did they get that? Oh no...

[nowensone]

Partially, yes - there are a couple different meanings to "internet history" which was part of the ambiguity. As far as the keywords/topics available from search engines, yes I could see that, the question is whether HS was grabbing high level aggregate type search stats or specific things searched for linked to a user's IP address. At the personal level, doubt they could get access to my browsing history stored on my PC, but I suppose it could be done if one essentially turned off certain security features and settings.

Anyway, it is one of those grey areas in my opinion - if we don't mind law inforcement playing big brother to track down child predators on the internet then terrorism shouldn't be too different. While I can't decide if I like the government knowing what I look at on the internet, it already has access to pretty much every non-cash transaction I make through tax records/IRS and other sources of personal information to which we have become accustomed, so it seems there is some broader issue to target here. The humorous thing to me is our tax dollars at work to employ people to sift through the 70% of such collected data that is nothing but porn...