Be as gay as you wanna be in the (Dutch) Army

In the midst of our ongoing unpacking, I came across a brochure I got once titled (in Dutch) "Homosexuality and the Military." Ok, neither part of that title is particularly pertinent to me, so you may wonder what on earth I was doing with the brochure in the first place. It turns out there's a handy Dutch govt. service where you can get all sorts of information on all parts of Dutch govt. and life, and order brochures and booklets, usually for free if you order 10 or less. If you've seen Dutch tv, then you know the little PSA's from Postbus 51 that appear at the end of the commercial blocks. Anyway, I went to the site once and ordered a bunch of stuff that looked interesting, and yeah, I had to see what a booklet titled "Homosexuality and the Military" was like.

Of course it should come as no surprise that such a govt. publication exists in this country. There ain't no "don't ask, don't tell" here. But still, gays going into the military may worry about how their sexual preference is received, and this booklet is here to tell them it's all ok. The photos say it all. I wish we had our scanner set up so I could post the photos, but it'd probably be a copyright violation or something anyway... So I'll just have to describe the photos. On the cover is a photo of two men in uniform, one casually tapping the other on the elbow and smiling as if to say, "I heard you're gay. I'm cool with that!" or perhaps "I know the best gay bars in town. I'll show you them Friday night!"

Inside the booklet there are more depictions that gays can lead normal military lives and not have to hide anything. Except their face: One photo shows a man in uniform (with a gold ring on his left hand!) reading "De Gay Krant" ("The Gay Newspaper"), but the paper is held up so that the page blocks his face. It's an odd way of coming across as very obvious and hiding something at the same time...

Below this man though is a man who is not afraid to hide his face... or his partner's. He sits at his desk having a cup of coffee and doing some work, and the caption points out that the military strives to create "a situation where even homosexuals can place a photo of their partner on their desk."

Lest you start to think that only men are in the military, or gay, there is a page with a photo of two women about to hug. I'm not sure if they are meant to be co-workers or partners who both happen to be in the military. Either way, the one whose face we see keeps up the smiley happy look that everyone else in the brochure has (minus the guy hiding behind his gay paper) because the govt. wants you to know that being gay, and in the military, is like being in one big happy family!

All joking aside, I think it's great that they are so open and equal about it. There's even an organization that takes care of gay issues in the military. It's better than treating it like it doesn't exist, or perpetuating the myth that someone who is gay is gonna start macking on all of the people of the same sex around them. There is support available though for those experiencing discrimination because even the Dutch military isn't perfect.