The Military’s Double Standard on Gay Pornography

Posted on | February 28, 2006

Andy Towle over at TowleRoad brings up a point I completely missed about this whole 82md Airborne porn "scandal". According to recently released documents, the military has interrogators who are impersonating FBI agents at Guantanamo’s "Camp X-Ray" where the US has been holding and torturing Arabs and Muslims. One of the techniques these fake FBI agents were using to "interrogate" (read "torture") is to wrap these individuals in the Israeli flag and force them to watch gay pornography. They would also use flashing strobe lights during these "interrogation" sessions which could last in upwards to eighteen hours. This all came to light when e-mails, written between 2002 and 2005, were released in which the FBI discussed and criticized the practice because the information’s accuracy could easily be called into question since victims of torture often say what their captors want them to say in order to get the torture to cease rather than accurate information. One of the memos said the following:

"Although MGEN (Maj. Gen.) Miller acknowledged positive aspects of (the FBI’s) approach, it was apparent that he favored (military) interrogation methods, despite FBI assertions that such methods could easily result in the elicitation of unreliable and legally inadmissible information."

Note the use of the phrase "legally inadmissible" use as well. Memos were also critical of the fact these military personnel had no experience in obtaining information from suspects. The same Major General Miller who shrugged off the FBI’s concerns was transferred out of Guantanamo and sent to Iraq in order to help with interrogations in Abu Gharib and other detention facilities in that nation.

Another thing pointed out is that disparity between the standards of military law and the laws that govern other US citizens. The careers of Spc. Richard T. Ashley, Pfc. Wesley K. Mitten, and Pvt. Kagen B. Mullen are over for doing something that, and this assumes that they did not violate rules like being off-base and so forth, would have had no criminal consequences outside the military. With the exception of certain sex acts like pedophilia, porn is perfectly legal in the United States both to produce, star in, and distribute. But those protections vanish when one signs the enlistment papers. In light of the "interrogation" tactic discussed above, Richard Kim who writes for The Nation had the following to say:

"This confluence of events presents the unlikely but completely plausible scenario in which 1) military boys star in gay porn which is 2) subsequently used by military interrogators in Guantanamo to torture prisoners in violation of international law then 3) these same military boys are prosecuted for acts which are perfectly legal under civilian law but remain punishable offenses under a silly and discriminatory set of military policies while 4) the torturers and their supervisors get off totally scot-free. Ain’t that America."

And in while writing this entry, another question popped into my head. How does this look when you compare it to the case of former soldier Kyle Lawson? His attacker assaulted him and broke his nose and his attacker got next to no punishment. A couple of soldiers appear in gay porn and they get discharged. While the base commanders were different in these two incidents, it still is an interesting approach to doling out punishments. Beat up a fellow soldier and you get nothing, do gay porn and you are booted.

This is of course also on top of the fact that heterosexual pornography done in the military usually gets swept under the rug. But we are all well aware of the military’s anti-gay violence.

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Comments

One Response to “The Military’s Double Standard on Gay Pornography”

John Desselle
May 9th, 2006 @ 11:50 am

I hate this double standard bull sh*t! The military is the most two faced entity that I can think of. My blood gets to boiling every time I hear about ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ It is such crap!!

And, yes, I have personal reasons to feel this strongly about this all.