One big switch? Sex is no longer a big deal on the front lines:

“Opponents of integrating women in combat zones long feared that sex would mean the end of American military prowess. But now birth control is available — the PX at Warhorse even sold out of condoms one day recently — reflecting a widely accepted reality that soldiers have sex at outposts across Iraq.”

Also:

“[Women] have changed the way the United States military goes to war. They have reshaped life on bases across Iraq and Afghanistan. They have cultivated a new generation of women with a warrior’s ethos — and combat experience — that for millennia was almost exclusively the preserve of men. And they have done so without the disruption of discipline and unit cohesion that some feared would unfold at places like Warhorse.”

All of this is interesting for gays and lesbians who are seeking to be out while serving in the military, because many of these same concerns – that open gays will lead to rampant sex on bases, that unit cohesion will be frayed, that soldiers will leave the Army in droves – have not come to pass.

Indeed, commanders have found women to be excellent soldiers, and have found male soldiers to eventually accept them without comment.

Our soldiers are more resilent than politicians make them out to be. We don’t have to protect them from open gay and lesbian soldiers any more than we needed to protect them from women.

Human Rights Watch called on the Iraqi government to act urgently to stop the abuses, warning that so-called social cleansing poses a new threat to security even as other violence recedes.

The bodies of several gay men were found in Baghdad’s main Shiite district of Sadr City earlier this year with the Arabic words for “pervert” and “puppy” – considered derogatory terms for homosexuals in Iraq – written on their chests.

The New York-based advocacy group said the threats and abuses have since spread to the cities of Kirkuk, Najaf and Basra, although the practice remains concentrated in the capital.

“Murders are committed with impunity, admonitory in intent, with corpses dumped in garbage or hung as warnings on the street,” the 67-page report said.

Reliable numbers weren’t available, Human Rights Watch said, blaming a combination of the failure of authorities to investigate such crimes and the stigma preventing families from reporting the deaths. But it cited a well-informed U.N. official as saying in April that the death toll was probably “in the hundreds.”

The campaign has been largely blamed on Shiite extremists who have long targeted behavior deemed un-Islamic, beating and even killing women for not wearing veils and bombing liquor stores.

Shiite militiamen have for the most part stopped their violence against rival Sunnis after radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s forces were routed by U.S. and Iraqi forces last year and declared a cease-fire. But the report indicated they were conducting a less publicized campaign of social cleansing.

“The same thing that used to happen to Sunnis and Shiites is now happening to gays,” said a doctor who had fled Baghdad and was interviewed for the report. The doctor, who described himself as gay, said several of his friends had been killed.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the issue with the media, acknowledged there has been a sharp escalation in attacks against gay men this year by suspected Shiite extremists. But he told The Associated Press that the ministry does not have numbers “because in most cases the family members themselves are either involved in the killing or prefer to keep silent, fearing shame.”

The former No. 2 official at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, Patricia Butenis, wrote in a letter to a U.S. congressman that reports from contacts familiar with the areas where some of the bodies were found “suggest the killings are the work of militias who believe homosexuality is a form of Western deviance that cannot be tolerated.”

The letter was in response to concerns raised by U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat who is openly gay. Polis had brought up the issue during a visit to Iraq.

Homosexuals have been targeted throughout the Iraq war, but the killings appear to have intensified as improvements in overall security led gay men to begin going out to cafes in groups and socializing in public, according to the report.

Human Rights Watch accused authorities of doing nothing to stop the killings and warned that reflected an overall inability to protect the people.

“These killings point to the continuing and lethal failure of Iraq’s post-occupation authorities to establish the rule of law and protect their citizens,” said Rasha Moumneh, a researcher at Human Rights Watch.

The Human Rights Watch report was based on interviews with more than 50 Iraqi men who identified themselves as gay as well as Iraqi human rights activists, journalists and doctors.

The Iraqi government’s Human Rights Ministry has condemned the killings of gay men.

“We are against any violation of their rights because they are after all Iraqi citizens,” said ministry spokesman, Kalim Amin. “The government should not allow any armed group to launch random killings against people, sometimes only for mere suspicion.”

Sadr City, a teeming slum district, is a stronghold of al-Sadr’s militia, which launched several uprisings against American forces after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 before U.S.-Iraqi forces seized control last year.

Iraqi police said homosexuals were afraid of being seen in public while the militiamen were in charge of Sadr City but began going out more as violence declined.

Fliers warning homosexuals that they will be killed “unless they come back to their senses” were distributed in Sadr City earlier this year and Shiite clerics have frequently called for the “education and rehabilitation” of gays in their Friday sermons.

Sadrist Sheik Ammar al-Saadi has denied any involvement by the movement in the killings and said the clerics only urged people to stop practicing homosexuality.

One 35-year-old man with the pseudonym Hamid has been unable to speak properly since his partner of 10 years was seized from his parents’ home in early April by four gunmen wearing black. His body was found the next day.

“They had thrown his corpse in the garbage. His genitals were cut off and a piece of his throat was ripped out,” Hamid was quoted as saying.

Human Rights Watch singled out the use of glue to seal men’s rectums as a common form of torture.

The report said Iraqi law does not ban consensual homosexual conduct between adults but contains certain provisions that can be exploited, including Saddam Hussein-era provisions that could reduce penalties for so-called honor crimes and crimes against people due to their sexual orientation.

Several violent images of a beheaded gay Iraqi were shown to the audience by one of the men, who goes by the name “Hussam.” He shocked the audience by claiming U.S. soldiers have also detained and executed Iraqi men perceived to be gay.

Images were shown of a U.S. soldier standing over a group of naked men chained together who Hussam claims were gay.  Hussam said he possesses images of their execution but did not show them to the audience.

“When it comes down to our armed services … who potentially have contributed to atrocities like that, I’m just appalled,” said Dana Beyer, a transgender activist and Chevy Chase, Md., resident who attended the event. “And I hope that we will pursue this through the government, through the State Department and through the Department of Defense because this just can’t be left standing.”

Several members voiced their skepticism of the events that Hussam detailed in his speech.

“It’s very difficult for me to believe that my country would allow its military to engage in the conduct that has been apparently documented,” said Chris Farris, a gay D.C. resident who also attended the event. “I would urge the U.S. government to react.”

“At least 82 gay men have been killed in Iraq since December, according to Iraqi LGBT. The violence has raised questions about the Iraqi government’s ability to protect a diverse range of vulnerable minority groups that also includes Christians and Kurds, especially following the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraqi cities last month.

Mithal al-Alusi, a secular, liberal Sunni legislator, is among those who blame the killings on armed militant groups such as al-Qaeda and the Mahdi Army militia.

By targeting one of the most vulnerable groups in a conservative Muslim society — people whose sexual orientation is banned by Iraqi law — the militias essentially are serving notice that they remain powerful despite the U.S. and Iraqi militaries’ efforts to curtail them, al-Alusi says.

The militants ‘want to educate the society to accept killers on the street’ al-Alusi says in an interview. ‘Why did Hitler start with gays? They are weak. They have no political cover. They have no legal cover.’”

Iraqi gunmen go into cafes, drag gay men out of them and shoot them in the street.  This needs to stop.  Our domestic issues – gay marriage, the military ban, the Uniting American Families Act – all of these are important and it is good we are fighting for them.

But we also need, individually and together, to put pressure on the State Department and Congress to investigate these murders and  work with the Iraqis to end them, using a combination of education and punishment.

This is a matter of life and death. It cannot wait.

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - DECEMBER 30: An Iraqi seller shows a rug bearing a picture of former Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein at his shop on December 30, 2007 in Baghdad, Iraq. Suppoprters of the former dictator are expected to gather at his burial site in Tikrit for the first anniversary of his execution, prompting security forces to be placed on alert. (Photo by Wathiq Khuzaie /Getty Images)

On Sunday, July 12th Radio 5 Live  will be airing a documentary about life as a gay Iraqi after Saddam Hussein. It’s likely to be powerful and disturbing and an article from the BBC gives a preview.

The most shocking finding human rights groups are faced with is that homophobia and gay related murders are on the rise since Saddam’s regime was toppled. The causes are unclear, but the fact is that the repressive regime we have all learned to condemn created a kind of pocket for gay culture in Iraq. Post war, the grip of religious leaders has strengthened and studies estimate that gay related murders since 2003 may be in the hundreds.

This year there are going to be lots of proclamations about successes in Iraq. As troops scale back, government and military personnel are going to be eager to discuss the progress for human rights and economic rights in the country.

The important thing to remember is that progress doesn’t happen in one wave. The Radio 5 documentary serves to remind us that as things take a step forward, human rights often takes a backseat.

I don’t know if these interested parties are gay or straight, but it seems like the majority of these soldiers are defending and promoting the repeal of DADT and acceptance of gays. 

 I was very comforted by seeing soldiers standing up for other gay and lesbian soldiers like me. 

Not all the opinions were positive; one negative commentary, “Problem with gays”, echoes a concern I read in copmments on my other posts.  If DADT is repealed how do we segregate those uncontrollable gays?  It is obvious to these writers that open gay and lesbian soldiers can’t be permitted to use the same facilities as heterosexuals or work in professions that might permit them to see same-sex genitialia. 

I can’t imagine what it would be like for those heterosexual soldiers.  They would have to look over their shoulder constantly to make sure no perverse homosexual was lurking in the shadows waiting for them to undress.  Truth be told, though, they should start looking over their shoulders now.  I have seen plenty of naked male soldiers throughout my military career- some extremely good looking- and they have all survived unscathed.

I have written previously that other men in my original unit know about me.  I have showered with them numerous times without any issues.  I have wondered what they thought about it, but have honestly never asked them.  Maybe I don’t want them to think about it.  I have even had one male soldier who asked me about his endowment, apparently because he was somewhat proud of it.  I am pretty sure I insulted him with my answer.

When I go to the showers here, they are individual stalls.  I get dressed and undressed in the stall with the curtain closed to protect my own privacy, something many do. 

I have been to plenty of places where this isn’t available and there is just an open room with shower heads lining the wall.  When that’s the case, I go into a dressing area, strip down and head into the shower.  I am not thinking sexual thoughts.  I am not even facing the other men.  I am in there to take a shower.  I admit to seeing attractive men, but I have never gotten sexually excited in a shower.  This is a respect and self-control issue that is needed for gays and lesbians to serve but I don’t think is found in the heterosexual population. 

They haven’t been forced to learn that virtue.

Heterosexual men get caught staring at women all the time.  My soldiers here are constantly – CONSTANTLY, to the point it’s annoying – picking women apart who are walking around.  Most of these women accept and ignore this attention, but what would it be like if these same men walked into their shower?  If the women and men were straight, they might find one another attractive, but could they control themselves and respect each other enough to take a shower and just leave? 

In a military environment where discipline and self control are paramount, unisex facilities should be possible.  Gays, lesbians, men and women should all be able to get naked together without an incident. 

I am reminded of a scene in “Starship Troopers” where there is a unisex shower scene.  I understand that it was just a movie, but the attitude expressed by the ‘troopers’ was exactly what I would expect it should be in this day and age.   The characters talked and joked around, but nothing was of a sexual nature- just as you might find in an all-male or all-female shower.  Soldiers are professionals and should be able to handle a little bit of nudity. 

Finally, if your profession requires that you see sexual genitalia or other features of a body that might be attractive to you, that’s the way it is.  Doctors see naked people all the time.  There are whole specializations based only on reproductive health, and even improving your attractiveness through augmentation and other plastic surgery.  If it’s a heterosexual or homosexuals job that requires them to invade your privacy, you should be more concerned more that they are professionally competent than whether or not they find you attractive. 

In the end, I would rather be attractive to anybody, gay or straight, than be unattractive to everybody.  Be flattered and get over it.  If you’re unattractive then don’t be paranoid, no one is looking at you.

1. Anyone who sells private pictures of a former lover/fun buddy  is a jerk.

2. Looks like a march on Washington D.C. is moving along.

3. The Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA championship. There is a disturbance in the force.

4. Will the protesters in Iran survive the brutality of the state?

5. Not much to add about the Department of Justice’s defense of DOMA. The adversary idea looks more tempting, no?

6. Flip-flops on city streets equals nasty.

7. What do you think of the new random thought photo?

8. For some reason I feel like a poser reading The Brothers Karamazov on the subway.

9. If you are looking for a provocative take on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, check out Michael Yon’s site.

10. I love city parks but not so much that I will stand in line for  a wristband to walk through one.

U.S. State Dept. spokesperson Ian Kelly, when questioned by reporters about anti-gay violence in Iraq, said:

Amnesty International says that said that “as many as 25 boys and men have been killed in Baghdad alone because they were either gay or believed to be amid concerns that religious leaders may be inciting violence against Iraq’s gay community,” The Times of India reports.

Moqtada Sadr made the call on Thursday during a seminar of clerics, police and tribal leaders.

There has been growing anti-gay violence in Iraq. Last month another Shiite cleric, Sattar al-Battat, repeatedly condemned homosexuality during Friday prayers, saying Islam prohibits homosexuality. Homosexual acts are punishable by up to seven years in prison in Iraq.

The following week, the bodies of two gay men were found in Baghdad’s Shiite slum of Sadr City. Several days later, a third man was found dead on the outskirts of Sadr City. By the end of the month, another three bodies were found and police said four other men were found tortured but alive.

Amnesty International said that in addition to the violence in Sadr City, 25 suspected gays had been killed in recent months in Baghdad.

A group calling itself “Brigades of the Righteous” has posted signs around Sadr City listing the names of alleged homosexuals and threatening to kill them.

Moqtada Sadr’s spokesperson on Friday said that the cleric’s call for the eradication of homosexuality was not an endorsement of the violence.

“Al-Sadr rejects this type of violence,” said Sheikh Wadea al-Atabi. “And anyone who commits violence [against gays] will not be considered as being one of us,” al-Atabi said.

“The only remedy to stop [homosexuality] is through preaching and guidance. There is no other way to put an end to it,” he said.

In addition to Al-Sadr’s remarks Thursday, another Shiite leader at the meeting said that homosexuality “is a disaster that has come to the community,” and a tribal leader from Sadr City, said: “Everybody has to work to preserve the morals of young people from the corrupt phenomena of the West.”