A recruiter for the US Army recently initiated an exchange with an openly gay man after finding his resume on CareerBuilder.com. The man politely declined to join the service, citing his open gayness as a primary reason. The recruiter spent the next three days saying "well you can't join anyway." Apparently the recruiter felt that the man violated the "don't ask don't tell" policy, and thereby invited a homophobic tirade:
YOU HEAD OF FTO THE GAY LAND OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO MORALS AND GET RID OF YOURSELF. PERSONALLY I THINK BEING GAY IS DISGUSTING AND IMMORAL. AND ANOTHET THING THINK AGAIN YOU AS AN AFRICAN HAVE NO PLACE TO SAY YOUR ROOTS ARE DEEPLY ROOTED HERE. MY ROOTS ARE MUCH STRONGER THAN YOURS YOU WERE BROUGHT HERE BEING YOUR WILLPOWER WHEREAS MY ROOTS RUN FROM THE NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN. I HAVE MORE RIGHTS HERE THAN YOU AND MY ROOTS HAVE BEEN HERE EVER SINCE BEFORE THE AMERICAS WERE DISCOVERED.
YOU TAKE YOUR GAY ASS OFF SOMEPLACE AND GO TO SOME OTHER COUNTRY AND BADMOUTH THE MILITARY.
AND ANOTHER THINK YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF DON'T ASK DON'T TELL. IF YOU ARE GAY YOUR ASS IS OUT OF THE MILITARY. GET FURTHER KNOWLEDGE ABOUT IT AND THEN TRY TO ARGUE YOUR CASE.
BYE
TAKE YOUR ASS BACK WHERE YOU BELONG NOT HERE.
On the following day she wrote this:
YOU GO BACK TO AFRICA AND DO YOUR GAY VOODOO LIMBO TANGO AND WANGO DANCE AND JUMP AROUND AND PRANCE AND RUN AROUND ALL OVER THE PLACE HALF NAKED THERE AND PRACTICE YOUR GAY MORALS OVER THERE THAT'S WHERE YOU BELONG. I AM REPORTING YOU AS SPAM AND ADDING YOU TO MY BLOCK SENDER LIST SO I DO NOT HAVE TO HEAR FROM YOU AGAIN.
YOU NEED TO CHECK YOUR SPELLING SO ARE THE ONE WIHO SO ILLITERATE. OBVIOUSLY YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND IF YOU ARE GAY YOU ARE OUT OF THE MILITARY YOU ARE DISQUALIFIED. SO WHAT'S THE BIG ISSUE HERE. YOU ARE UPSET YOU DO NOT QUALIFY. I BET THAT'S TRUE. YOUR INNER SPIRITS ARE NOT TRUE TO YOU SINCE YOU DO NOT KNOW IF YOU ARE MALE OR FEMALE. YOU MUST BE A TOTAL IDIOT AND SO STUPID TO PRESUME THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT GENDER YOU ARE.
ANYWAYS I WON'T HEAR FROM YOU AGAIN SINCE YOU ARE BLOCKED. SO BYE
ADIOS
GOODBYE
I'm not sure how to approach this. Should I look for things that are offensive, or for things that aren't offensive? Should I be more upset by the homophobia, the racism, or the bizarre geographic notions this person has about Africa? Or perhaps I should be more concerned about the horrendous all-caps text, the misuse of nearly all words, the strangely alogical argument structure, and the sad abuse of punctuation. Or, perhaps I should be more worried that there's been a rabies outbreak in the army.
One of the strangest features of this email is the following implicit mentality: (1) I can, in my official capacity, express deeply held personal views. (2) I deeply believe that homosexuality is immoral, and I'm deeply disgusted by it. (3) If, in conducting my official duties, I should happen to meet a gay man, I should reasonably be able to express my deeply held beliefs to him. (4) As long as the door is open for attacking someone based on sexual orientation, it should be fine to attack him based on race and social class as well. (5) Since I'm on a roll, I might as well throw out another deeply held belief: people have "more rights" based on (A) military service and (B) their genetic ancestry.
Seriously, though, is this the same US Army for which I'm supposed to show so much respect? Is this one of the troops I'm supposed to support? Does this email exchange reveal evidence of a broader military trend toward fascist attitudes of social dominance?
