it was the shirely show, do not know if i typed the name of the show or not correctly.
it was was about gays and lesbians being in the army. General Lewis Mackenzie was suppose to be on the show as a guest and he wanted army people in the audience to watch, sort of show that we were above the BS about how bad or how good it would be for the army to have gays or lesbians in the forces. we were not in uniform but were all seated together as a group in reserved seating area, so when the audience was shown we would be on camera lots. i think i counted myself on camera at least 10 times during the tv airing of the show.
it was not hard to pick out the army people there, short, hair, clean cut and not making out with the same sex beside them.
if we decided to ask or say something during the question answer period , we were coached how to say it so it did not look like or sound like army policy or as if we were trying to create new policy.
at the last minute Gen MAc was told he was not allowed to attend the taping but we could still go and see for ourselves the fuss and see if it was really such a big deal. we had a debrief the next morning by the paffo people incase we said anything on camera. i do not recall any one from the HQ saying anything on camera
we were told not to wear army uniforms, there was a captain and a few others besides myself who went down. it was hot while waiting in line to get in to the taping, he was was well dressed, sweater and stuff, like most of us, he took off his sweater, he was wearing his Mountain Warfare USA Army Tshirt, just back of a course with the 10th Mountain troops, I was wearing my UNit Tshirt, all the army people had the dogtags and stuff on. so no matter what we worn we were army.
I was on Class Ba so i was under the rules of the CDS and various other directions given at the time by commanding officers and commanders.
Paffo gave the directions as follows not word for word but close enough it has been over 10 years.
if we wanted to say anything, we could not state any offical policy that we knew of, or been told about. we could not say our names or ranks, could not state units where were stationed or working. could not state rumours or unofficial sources for anything.
if we were to say anything we had to start with something like this " in my personal opinion" or "i believe "
they were very strict on what words we could say.
the guests on the show were one guy formerly served and had just released from the forces. he was very openly gay. A former army intelligence officer from the 50s to 70s and was found out to be gay and not allowed on a US army posting exchange program , he was a Canadian officer, the US army deemed him a threat to national security, and everyone here good friend Taylor. Scott???? i want to call him james but i am bad for names.
the just out of the serivice guy not sure if he was air or army. he complained that he was always on the alert for gay bashing and stuff and he got out for his own safety. the Officer retired because of his sexual history and was forced out.
Taylor all he would talk about how the guys or women would feel uncomfortable about the showers which are shared and stuff how the gay soldier would make them feel if they thought they were being checked out by the gay soldier.
the show was poory done, poorly researched and poorly conducted. they never even got beyond the how the showers were bad, living witha gay soldier was all bad. nothing about if the soldier could do the job let them be. it was all negative in how it was protrayed, i felt i sudden;y had joined a gay bashing group. I am not gay but i do not think they needed to be bashed so hard. I am of the idea behind closed doors who cares unless i am involved.
hope this clears some of that up
