Divide to Conquer: Testifying about Gender and Sexuality in the Military at Winter Soldier
Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW)just wrapped up an historic event in Washington, DC today, Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan. Here?s how IVAW described the event:
The four day event featured testimony from U.S. veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The testimony was often grouped by theme and to the great credit of what must have been a few people fighting hard for it, one panel was devoted to gender and sexuality in the military, called Divide To Conquer: Gender and Sexuality in the Military.
I strongly encourage you to listen to the veterans? testimony (you can do so online here thanks to KPFA, and soon it should be available in video via the IVAW website). It?s hard to imagine that regardless of your position on the military and the war you won?t be challenged and moved by the testimony of people whose lives have been so directly affected by it.
Here are some of the things they said that are sticking with me most?
Patty McCann joined the Illinois National Guard when she was seventeen. She deployed to Iraq in 2003. She talked about her direct and indirect experiences with gender bias and prejudice and sexual harassment and assault during her service.
One of the first things Patty said was that it?s hard to be a veteran and a woman because she feels like her experiences all get boiled down to being ?a woman in the military? and she doesn?t get to talk about her experiences as a soldier. This reminded me how easy it is to forget that our gender isn?t just used against us in terms of rights and opportunities, it can actually be used to prevent us from fully expressing our human experience. Patty also pointed out that currently Tri-Care (the military?s health plan) doesn?t cover the cost of sexual assault kits, meaning that if you?ve been assaulted you may very well have to pay to make sure proof of the assault is documented.
Margaret Stevens was a member of the New Jersey National Guard. She served as a medic and was activated after 9/11. Margaret was one of many panelists to point out that the panel was making history by raising issues of gender and sexuality in the military in a public forum. She also pointed out that these issues belong on every panel. Margaret talked about the role of sexuality in the recruitment process (?the process of sexual trauma begins at recruitment?) and the difficult choices women face regarding timing pregnancy and deployment. She spoke bluntly about rape in the military and about the complete lack of support for women or men to speak out and speak up about it.
Abby Hiser served eight years with the Wisconsin Army National Guard before being honorably discharged as a sergeant. Something Abby said early on sounds like it exemplifies the frustration of many women in the military: ?I joined the military to defend my country, not my integrity and self worth.? Abby talked about the impossibility of being a woman in the military (if you?re friendly you?re promiscuous, if you keep to yourself you?re a bitch) and the many ways her career path was directly affected by her gender.
Jeff Key was a Marine who came out on CNN. He enlisted under the Don?t Ask Don?t Tell policy, and spoke about his mostly positive experience as an out gay man in the Marines. He also acknowledged that men are assaulted and murdered for being gay in the military, but in his experience his fellow Marine?s went above and beyond to support him. Jeff talked mostly about gender prejudice and homophobia (which he pointed out weren?t just found in the military and were evident in the peace movement, which represented many of the folks in the audience). Jeff spoke a lot about the need for us to have hope, and ended his testimony by saying that ?my highest idea of someone who serves in our military the code of conduct that they would bring into the battlefield has everything to do with dispelling these old ways of thinking around gender and sexuality and has everything to do with standing up for what our country supposedly stands for?.
Learn more about Winter Soldier and Iraq Veterans Against the War and watch video testimony from the event (you can also read Justin C. Cliburn's live blogging which helped me greatly in compiling the above information)
Listen to testimony from the Divide to Conquer: Gender and Sexuality in the Military from KPFA
Stop Military Rape/ Military Rape Crisis Center (a website started by a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard who is a survivor of Military Sexual Trauma)
Sexual Health Issues for Post-Combat Soldiers
Learn more about the original Winter Soldier
In 1971, a courageous group of veterans exposed the criminal nature of the Vietnam War in an event called Winter Soldier. Once again, we will create a space for veterans to make their voices heard.
Americans have heard from the generals, they've heard from the politicians, they've heard from the media ? now it?s our turn. It is our responsibility to share the realities of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and show how these occupations are breaking our soldiers and destroying our military.
And once and for all, we must show that soldiers are not criminals, this war is criminal.
The four day event featured testimony from U.S. veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The testimony was often grouped by theme and to the great credit of what must have been a few people fighting hard for it, one panel was devoted to gender and sexuality in the military, called Divide To Conquer: Gender and Sexuality in the Military.
I strongly encourage you to listen to the veterans? testimony (you can do so online here thanks to KPFA, and soon it should be available in video via the IVAW website). It?s hard to imagine that regardless of your position on the military and the war you won?t be challenged and moved by the testimony of people whose lives have been so directly affected by it.
Here are some of the things they said that are sticking with me most?
Patty McCann joined the Illinois National Guard when she was seventeen. She deployed to Iraq in 2003. She talked about her direct and indirect experiences with gender bias and prejudice and sexual harassment and assault during her service.
One of the first things Patty said was that it?s hard to be a veteran and a woman because she feels like her experiences all get boiled down to being ?a woman in the military? and she doesn?t get to talk about her experiences as a soldier. This reminded me how easy it is to forget that our gender isn?t just used against us in terms of rights and opportunities, it can actually be used to prevent us from fully expressing our human experience. Patty also pointed out that currently Tri-Care (the military?s health plan) doesn?t cover the cost of sexual assault kits, meaning that if you?ve been assaulted you may very well have to pay to make sure proof of the assault is documented.
Margaret Stevens was a member of the New Jersey National Guard. She served as a medic and was activated after 9/11. Margaret was one of many panelists to point out that the panel was making history by raising issues of gender and sexuality in the military in a public forum. She also pointed out that these issues belong on every panel. Margaret talked about the role of sexuality in the recruitment process (?the process of sexual trauma begins at recruitment?) and the difficult choices women face regarding timing pregnancy and deployment. She spoke bluntly about rape in the military and about the complete lack of support for women or men to speak out and speak up about it.
Abby Hiser served eight years with the Wisconsin Army National Guard before being honorably discharged as a sergeant. Something Abby said early on sounds like it exemplifies the frustration of many women in the military: ?I joined the military to defend my country, not my integrity and self worth.? Abby talked about the impossibility of being a woman in the military (if you?re friendly you?re promiscuous, if you keep to yourself you?re a bitch) and the many ways her career path was directly affected by her gender.
Jeff Key was a Marine who came out on CNN. He enlisted under the Don?t Ask Don?t Tell policy, and spoke about his mostly positive experience as an out gay man in the Marines. He also acknowledged that men are assaulted and murdered for being gay in the military, but in his experience his fellow Marine?s went above and beyond to support him. Jeff talked mostly about gender prejudice and homophobia (which he pointed out weren?t just found in the military and were evident in the peace movement, which represented many of the folks in the audience). Jeff spoke a lot about the need for us to have hope, and ended his testimony by saying that ?my highest idea of someone who serves in our military the code of conduct that they would bring into the battlefield has everything to do with dispelling these old ways of thinking around gender and sexuality and has everything to do with standing up for what our country supposedly stands for?.
Learn more about Winter Soldier and Iraq Veterans Against the War and watch video testimony from the event (you can also read Justin C. Cliburn's live blogging which helped me greatly in compiling the above information)
Listen to testimony from the Divide to Conquer: Gender and Sexuality in the Military from KPFA
Stop Military Rape/ Military Rape Crisis Center (a website started by a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard who is a survivor of Military Sexual Trauma)
Sexual Health Issues for Post-Combat Soldiers
Learn more about the original Winter Soldier
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