Anti-Gays Flaming As DADT Burns Out

As Congress moves to allow gays and lesbians to serve their country in the military, a Montgomery County Public Schools advisor for sex education has said that if gays and lesbians are allowed to serve openly in the military, the result will be an increase in the number of incidents where men fondle and perform oral sex on other men who are sleeping.

The Family Research Council document authored by MCPS citizens advisory committee member Peter Sprigg uses some data from the National Health and Social Life Survey estimating that 2.8 percent of men and 1.4 percent of women identify themselves as gay or lesbian. Then his report, titled Homosexual Assault in the Military, states that "more than eight percent of sexual assaults in the military are homosexual in nature," adding, "This is nearly three times what would be expected." The eight percent figure is based on the FRC's inspection of case synopses for all sexual assaults reported in the military in fiscal year 2009. The FRC notes that in their analysis 7.55 percent of all the cases were male-on-male assaults, and 0.61 percent were female on female. Their conclusion is that "it is hard to escape the conclusion that, in fact, homosexual and bisexual servicemembers are, on average, more likely to engage in sexual assault than are heterosexual servicemembers."

In concluding this, they dismiss the possibility that homosexual assault is more likely to be reported, and in fact contend that same-sex assaults are probably under-reported because of the stigma associated with homosexuality. This is a shot in the dark and almost certainly wrong.

Most of the cases cited in Sprigg's report are groping incidents. Does a woman report every time a man grabs her? Of course not. Overly aggressive men should be held accountable for their behavior, but for one reason or another they often are not -- this is a social problem in its own right. A straight man who is the recipient of unexpected attention from another man may be offended and even shocked in a way that few woman would be. One result is going to be asymmetry in the reporting of heterosexual and homosexual assaults. A man grabs a woman, she avoids him after that; a man grabs a man, he freaks out and reports it. The data that the Family Research Council "analyzed" give a lot of information about bias inherent in self-report of sensitive issues and very little information about the prevalence of sexual assault in the US military.

A government report issued in 2008 found that forty one percent of women veterans interviewed at a veterans hospital said they had been sexually assaulted while they were in the military. Twenty nine percent said they had been raped during their service. The FRC's data set comprised "all 1,643 reports of sexual assault reported by the four branches of the military for Fiscal Year 2009." According to Wikipedia, as of last year there were 1,454,515 people in active duty. Twenty percent of those are women, approximately 291,000 of them. Forty one percent of those have been sexually assaulted, 41 percent of 291,000 is 119,270. Yet the official sexual assault file contains fewer than two thousand cases, about one per cent of the estimated true number.

The FRC report makes this interesting reference: "Although these [homosexual assault] cases are part of the public record, they are rarely reported on by the media—in contrast to cases of heterosexual assault, such as the infamous “Tailhook” scandal." But the problem with Tailhook was that that kind of heterosexual groping and sexual assault had become so widespread and commonplace that the participants hardly felt they were doing anything unusual or wrong. It wasn't that there was a wild party, the problem was that there was a culture within the military that considered that kind of heterosexual aggression normal. Of course the the vast majority of heterosexual assaults are never reported in the media -- imagine if there was a news story every time a guy in a bar or at a party or even at work touched a woman inappropriately!

Really, it's not surprising but this report is nonsense. One weird thing, they censor innocent medical terms like "penis" and "anus," which are spelled "p---s" and "a--s."

Talking Points Memo reports on a conference call that MCPS sex-ed advisor and Family Research Council Senior Fellow for Policy Studies Peter Sprigg was on. Sprigg is quoted:

"If open homosexuality was permitted in the military, these numbers can only increase," Sprigg said. "The number of homosexuals would grow, the threat of discharge for homosexual behavior would be eliminated and protected class status for homosexuals would make victims hesitant to report assaults and make commanders hesitant to punish them for fear of appearing homophobic." Family Research Council: End Of DADT Means More Gay Rape In The Military

There is a massive problem of sexual abuse in the military, and it has nothing to do with gay people. If Peter Sprigg were concerned with sexual assault in the military he would start with the elephant in the room, the system-wide rape and abuse of servicewomen. No, Peter Sprigg is obsessively focused on the possibility of a man groping another man, an event that is trivial when you realize that nearly a third of military women are raped while they're on active duty.