A recent Durango Herald article reported that a military recruiter was overheard by students using a homophobic slur during the adminstration of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test in Durango High School.
We would like to say we are shocked by the language of the officer described in the article, but we are not. No one familiar with the history of homophobia, transphobia, and hetero-normativity in the military would be. The armed forces of nation-states are instruments of patriarchy and a hetero-normative world view. Our lack of surprise, however, does not detract from our anger and rage against the larger social dynamics present in our increasingly precarious lives, which this incident is merely a microcosm of. We find ourselves more than anything surprised that parents and students are not more resistant to military-supervised testing in the first place, let alone the presence of military recruiters in our schools, and the overwhelmingly conservative backlash in local discourse surrounding the incident. Kudos though to DHS for at least making a bit of a ruckus about it, and not taking it sitting down.
Though by law schools receiving tax dollars must allow military recruiters to stalk their hallways for fresh cannon fodder, there are easy steps that can be taken to protect your children from these predators (at least to a certain, albeit minimal extent). Just google "military opt out form" or go to leavemychildalone.org
According to their website, "the notorious No Child Left Behind Act includes a sneaky section that requires high schools to turn over private information on students to military recruiters," and "the Pentagon has created an illegal database of 30 million 16-25 year-olds, including names, addresses, email addresses, cell phone numbers, ethnicities, social security numbers, extracurricular activities, and areas of study".
Whether we reject or embrace representative republicanism and the electoral politics of the state (which the Dirty Hands Collective reject outright), we should demand that Obama and our other elected "representatives" repeal laws requiring schools to allow military recruiters on their campuses. Get the military out of our schools!
Comments on the Durango Herald's website have been extremely conservative, right-wing, homophobic, pro-military, and even proto-fascist.
The Dirty Hands Collective is calling on radicals in Colorado and everywhere to go to the Durango Herald website and post comments supporting queer liberation and condemning military recruitment in our schools.
Please help us counter the extreme right, here and everywhere, and we'll do the same for you. We got your back. And we know you got ours.
Bash back!
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Comments
homophobic slur
November 5, 2009 by Anonymous, 2 weeks 2 days ago
Comment id: 4241
We don't want them in our military. Subject closed.
Our Military is right, that means it is not just your military
November 6, 2009 by phil, 2 weeks 2 days ago
Comment id: 4242
It's all our military and your homophobic stance is a sad comment on the immorality and false values of the conservative right.
We don't want people like you in our military is the opinion of the majority of Americans who do want the military to end this foolish "don't ask don't tell"
You sir are a bigot and in the minority.
no gays in the military?
November 6, 2009 by Rebel Insurgent, 2 weeks 2 days ago
Comment id: 4243
homophobic slur
November 6, 2009 by Anonymous, 2 weeks 1 day ago
Comment id: 4245
We don't want them in our military. If you want to be in our military. leave the GAY at home.
out of the closets and into the streets!
November 7, 2009 by little root, 2 weeks 1 day ago
Comment id: 4247
FUCK THE MILITARY, YOU CAN KEEP YOUR MARRIAGE, WE WANT LIBERATION!!!
B(A)SH BACK!
no state-run army, no state-sponsored marriage
November 6, 2009 by Anonymous, 2 weeks 1 day ago
Comment id: 4246
Wanting gays in the military is like the campaign for gay marriage - bourgeois demands for inclusion in the privildges of a state.
I don't think any american should get married or join the military unless they're doing it to gain access to resources which they use for postive things other than their own advancement in the labor-aristocracy.
Imperialist and faciist military
November 7, 2009 by phil, 2 weeks 1 day ago
Comment id: 4249
America is in my estimation Imperialist. The arrogance and ethnocentric world view held by our sorry excuse for a government is an affront to the sensibilities of all who appose the corporatist agenda that is the focus of our policies. The debate about gays in the military is an excelent example of this ethnocentric world view which holds that all who are not just like the stereotypical "good American" should be disenfranchised.
I marvel at people who vote and act against there own self intrest and the interests of there fellow man. There is no such thing as America land of the free. In America which has 4.7% of the worlds population we have over 25% of all the prisoners on the planet. We are a police state who has a propaganda machine and media that does a great job of hiding it. People vote fpr free market policies which have made the top 1% have a net worth equall to the bottom 95%!!! What a lie the myth of America is with its work hard and you'll succeed, crap that is at beast a fiction.
To some it may sound radical to say that if you love America you should bring down its government. To me and a growing number of others it seems so obvious.
Military in Schools
November 20, 2009 by Anonymous, 2 days 8 hours ago
Comment id: 4293
Military recruitment has far too much access in public schools. College and corporate recruiters don't have as much access, and neither does the Peace Corp. Let's put the military back on an even footing, shall we?
ROTC
November 21, 2009 by Anonymous, 1 day 17 hours ago
Comment id: 4295
ROTC RULES!
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