Greece does not want gays in its armed forces

​

(AFP)​

28 March 2006

ATHENS - Greece officially does not want gays in its armed forces, excluding both those serving under its compulsory conscription system and those enlisting voluntarily, the Greek armed forces general staff said on Tuesday. ​

The Greek army bars gays from its ranks under a 2002 presidential decree which excludes from military service all persons ”suffering from psycho-sexual or sexual identity disorders,” a general staff source told AFP.​

The confirmation came as the country’s gay community (Eok) on Tuesday filed a complaint against the Greek defence and transport ministries, arguing that this “fascist” statute is now preventing them from obtaining drivers’ licenses as well.​

A certificate testifying that a conscript has completed his military service -- which is compulsory for all Greek males -- is among the required paperwork for a driver’s license in Greece, observed Eok member Vangelis Iannelos.​

Iannelos pointed to the case of a gay man who was recently told by the transport ministry to attend a six-month psychiatric treatment course if he wanted to obtain a driver’s license.​

Iannelos’ own army certificate, issued in 1996, noted that he ”suffers from homosexual behaviour”, he said.​

At the behest of Greece’s personal data watchdog, such details are no longer inscribed on the army certificate.​

But as the same document is given to all cases exempt from army service, “homosexuals are placed in the same bag with psychotics,”Iannelos told AFP.​

In February 2006, the Greek state committee on human rights, an official advisor to the prime minister, had demanded steps to end anti-gay discrimination in the country. No such measures have been taken.​

Source:http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/March​

The following is the goal of this thread (So, Don't be loser by taking off the topic ):​

Well, homosexuality is unacceptable in Islam too, however, my question is, did (those who bark whenever similar issues appear and happen in the Islamic country) bark at this too? If so, please show me their barking, I am eager to see it. Thank you in advance.​

NB: I already posted a thread about 2 free lessons to understand the meaning of (off topic and irrelevant) and how to post new thread you can find it right here (BTW: no fees)​

Peace and love ​

Yours Sincerely,​

Cat Stevens​

Note: Silly, Irrelevant, and the like, responses, posts, comments will be ignored (it depends on my mood and time if I won't ignore them), taking off the topic is losers' style, ask yourself: will you write such response if the writer wasn't a Muslim!​

 

well that's the traditions of the spartans finally buggered (hehe) then.....

 

German Government: “Treat Gays As Equals”
GERMANY, Berlin - The German government said Thursday that homosexuality is no reason to reduce a soldier’s status or limit his responsibility.
The issue had arisen in the case of an officer who was reassigned from platoon leader to an office job after a background check revealed he is gay. He filed suit in Germany’s constitutional court last year against the move, and in April the defense ministry said he would be reinstated as platoon leader.

In a response to a question by the parliament faction of the Party of Democratic Socialism, the government reaffirmed that homosexuality is no “separate entry criterion” for military service. The defense ministry will also make it clear in army regulations the consequences of discrimination based on sexual orientation and offer advice for leaders in a brochure dealing with gay troops in the army.

 

Gays in Israeli Military Don’t Hurt Combat Readiness - Study
ISRAEL - The presence of gay and lesbian soldiers in the Israeli military does not affect combat readiness, unit cohesion, or military preparedness, a study by U.S. researchers has found.
The study, conducted by Aaron Belkin, director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Melissa Levitt of ELM Research Associates, showed that “military performance did not decline” after the Israeli government allowed openly gay men and lesbians to join the services.

“In this country, the military ban is based on the idea that gays undermine performance and cohesion,” says Belkin. “The experience of foreign militaries shows that there is no evidence for this position.” Belkin said that even in the event of people’s coming out once they are in the services, “Israeli officials report no deterioration of unit cohesion or performance.”

The report’s conclusions are similar to those reached in a study of gay and lesbian personnel in Canada’s military.

 

Sex Change Pilot To Keep Flying
UNITED KINGDOM, London (AP) – A Royal Air Force flier who had a sex change operation will be allowed to continue flying as a woman, Britain's Ministry of Defense said Monday.
Flight Lt. Eric Cookson, 39, now Caroline Paige, is the only transsexual in the Royal Air Force, the ministry said.

The helicopter navigator is on sick leave recovering from the surgery, which cost $27,000, and will shortly take medical tests to ascertain whether she is fit to fly again, the ministry said.

In an interview with the mass-selling tabloid The Sun, the tall blonde now known to her friends as Caz said she had always felt like a woman.

"When I joined the RAF in 1980, I didn't encounter any problems because nobody suspected my inner feelings,'' she said. "But about two years ago, things got worse as I realized I was not living my true life – so I decided to do something about it. Now I can't wait to get back to flying.''

After signing up, the former Cookson trained as a navigator and flew regular missions in Phantom F4 and Hawk fighter planes before switching to helicopters in 1992, the Ministry of Defense said. Cookson served in Bosnia and the Persian Gulf.

Two years ago, Cookson told RAF doctors he wanted to change sex and was given permission to dress as a woman while he waited for surgery, which was performed May 10.

"This was all new ground to them because I am the first transsexual to declare myself,'' Paige told The Sun, adding that colleagues "have been very supportive and loyal.''

 

Gays No threat to Australia Military – U.S. Study
UNITED STATES, California, San Francisco (Reuters) – Australia's 1992 decision to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in its armed forces has had no impact on military readiness, according to a new University of California study.
Aaron Belkin, director of the Centre for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at U.C.-Santa Barbara, said the Australian results confirmed similar findings on gays serving in the Israeli and Canadian armed forces.

"Our research shows again and again that when (gay) bans are lifted, military performance does not decline,'' Belkin said on Wednesday. The United States has refused to lift its ban on openly gay troops, citing a danger to combat readiness and unit cohesion.

The United States and Turkey are the only members of NATO that still ban people who are openly homosexual from serving in their armed forces.

Britain ended its ban in January after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that it was a violation of European human rights treaties to discharge military personnel because of sexual orientation.

Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the Scandinavian countries do not consider the sexual orientation of recruits or of military personnel on active duty.

The new California study, co-authored by Jason McNichol, a doctoral candidate at U.C.-Berkeley, involved interviews with Australian soldiers, academics and Defence Ministry representatives as well as reviews of all published material on the topic.

It concluded that despite initial concern among military leaders that ending the ban on gay soldiers would jeopardise recruitment, troop cohesion and combat effectiveness, the integration of openly homosexual soldiers since 1992 had proceeded smoothly and had virtually no widespread impact.

Indeed, the study concluded that many senior Australian military commanders believed the policy change had been a success that had helped to build "greater equity and effective working relationships within the ranks.''

Senior officials, commanders and scholars report that there has been no overall pattern of disruption to the Australian military, and the study noted that the new policy had been put to the combat test as openly gay and lesbian soldiers served in recent active deployments in East Timor.

Recruitment and retention rates had not suffered as a result of the policy change, the study concluded.

Belkin said that his institute did not take any official position in the U.S. debate over gays in the military, but added that it had sent copies of all its studies to the Pentagon for review.

"People who oppose lifting the ban almost always make the same arguments, and once the ban is lifted, they almost always change their minds,'' he said.

The complete study is available on the world wide web at: http://www.gaymilitary.ucsb.edu/australia_pub.htm

 

Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the Scandinavian countries do not consider the sexual orientation of recruits or of military personnel on active duty.

 

Dumb Greeks.

 

i think that many would be 'barking at all cases'. no matter of the situation.
if you do not accept homosexuality, i personally think you are being SOO discriminatiary, i don't care if you are Muslim, Greek, Christian, African or anything, disagreeing and not accepting homosexuality, i take with no difference to racism.

I repsect religion, but have no respects for the part of religions that says homosexuality is unacceptable.

Na di cannot show you the barking, unless you give me the time in the world, to go around and talk to people. i live in a democracy, the people have the issues. i am so-called barking, so there is proof

 

about this we dont accept Islam period.

 

I know someone commented on this, he said: ''maybe because they needed more soldiers, they lost many normal people in Iraq. so, maybe the US will let them join soon as well, US is very exploitative''. and as another one said: '' they can get rid of them by letting them join the army'' however, both are guesses

Peace and love ​

Yours Sincerely,​

Cat Stevens​

​

Note: Silly, Irrelevant, and the like, responses, posts, comments will be ignored (it depends on my mood and time if I won't ignore them), taking off the topic is losers' style, ask yourself: will you write such response if the writer wasn't a Muslim!​

 

brothwood

and many bark in a different way regarding particular issues done by particular group of people, maybe some of them just want to emphasize to others that they hate DS. I think their barking must be one, and the same in its level.

I will be always waiting ya =)

I don't know you, nor saw your former barking regarding other similiar issues?

Peace and love ​

Yours Sincerely,​

Cat Stevens​

​

Note: Silly, Irrelevant, and the like, responses, posts, comments will be ignored (it depends on my mood and time if I won't ignore them), taking off the topic is losers' style, ask yourself: will you write such response if the writer wasn't a Muslim!​

 

Legend says that Leonidas's trouble against king Xerxes resulted in victory for freedom over slavery. Speaker assures us that the event is real, even though it is so old (2500 years ago) that it feels almost mythological, for the historical evidence is there. Almost all we know about the battle and Spartans themselves comes from one man, Herodotus, the first Greek historian, his account of the Spartans fight against the overwhelming adds reverberated down through the ages. Over time historians and artists turned Leonidas and his men into mythical figures and their inspiring battle at the Thermopile into an epic fight for the entire western world

civilazation

​

 

In Sparta Persia would find a military machine like no other, closed to the outside world, Sparta's people though they were the chosen super-race and with extreme laws and ideals they planned to stay that way.

At birth all babies were examined to check that they can form to the Spartan ideal, even prince Leonidas would have been tested.

(Victor Davis Hanson, California Sate Univercity) You failed a physical test that is you were born into a family and had an obvious glaring defect whether that was being lame or blind or deaf you would have been killed, exposed.

(Main speaker) Exposure was common across ancient Greece but Spartans took it to extreme.

(Paul Cartledge, University of Cambridge) Children were exposed not only because they were deformed but also because parents could not bring them up and the though was they would be picked up, they would be brought up. In Sparta they took the view that deformed infants (even ones showing some signs of weakness) were to be hurled down a kazum (cliff) not far from Sparta and literally killed.

In Sparta a healthy boy like Leonidas would have been allowed to live and so begin his life long duty to the state. At the age of 7 a boy would have been removed from his family and though the Spartan ways. Living together in barracks the boys learn comradeship and deprived of all conforts they were molded through extreme hardship.

A person from a very early age would have to learn how to hunt, would go barefooted, would have to learn to survive on its own in the wilds.

The were deliberately given not enough to eat and also they were encouraged to steal to augment their media rations and they were whipped if they were caught, not because stealing was a crime but because they were clumsy thief's.

And the eyes of Sparta were everyone weeding out the weak and lazy. When Leonidas would have hit puberty a Spartan mentor would have taken him under his wing.

(Paul Cartridge, U. of Cambridge) Spartan girls were given some sort of formal education and they had some sort of exercise, allegedly naked, in front of the boys. The aim being for them to be, when they married and they married late by Greek standards, educated, brought up in such ways to be able to survive the riges of childbirth. Ideally they gave birth to boys because Sparta was a fundamentally a military society so the whole system is geared to producing largest number physically fittest fighting males.

(Peter Green, U.of Texas) One of the things that always amazes me is that they ever manage to produce children because they were encouraged to go into sort of military homosexual relationships until they were allowed to marry.

(Anton Powel, University of Wales, Swansea) The Spartans may wel be fighting next to their boyfriends. Homosexuality was though to bind men to their peers. It was your job with your shield and your own spear to guard your lover , that was part of the cement that kept the Spartan battle line together. Homosexuality was very common in Sparta and it was positivly looked on - provided it didnt stop men breeding.

(Main Speaker) The Spartan population was perilously small so there were laws designed to spice up the sex lives of married couples.

(Anton Powel, University of Wales, Swansea) A Spartan man wasnt allowed to see his wife in daylight for the first ten years or so of their marriage. A man was encouraged to see his wife as a splendid sex object. Emotional development is something we did not want because families were a source of peculiarity. Spartans wanted to produce similars, they wanted them wheeling on a battlefield , one mind like a flook of birds.

(Main Speaker) At age 20, Leonidas would have joined Spartan ranks. His duty -- to fight for Sparta until he was sixty or dead. He would have be given Sparta's trademark, red cloak, the only uniform in Greece designed to hide blood -- whether that of his own of that of one of his victims. Leonidas would have also been required to grow his hair into long locks.

(Anton Powel, University of Wales, Swansea) Sparta's hair is meant to intimidate, it was long, it bristled, these were Spartan dreadlocks. They were for the enemy to dread. When someone looked at a Spartiate they were meant to draw a message about Spartan society. This man is terrifying. Look at the size of him, the length of his hair, blood red cover of his cloak, look at the rest of them there too. They are calling attention to themselves -- masters of the universe.



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Lets go greek...

DOH
Yasu niko.....

Hey anal sex is ok by occam.. he has done it M to F and who cares what hole
we use to have fun. If no-one is harmed then there IS NO ISSUE.

Human sexual preference is a mater of private concern.
That means..
Mind your own f'n business

Occam

 

UNITED KINGDOM - Britain's decision Wednesday to lift its ban on gays in the military brings it into line with most of the rest of the Western world.
Most NATO nations either have strict policies against discrimination or consider it a non-issue and have no policies at all. Other countries take an officially nondiscriminatory attitude but have no laws governing the matter.

United States: Washington has not yet completely come to grips with the issue, following what it calls a "don't ask, don't tell'' policy that allows homosexuals to serve in the military as long as they keep their sexual orientation private.

Canada: Gays are full-fledged members of the Canadian armed forces. There are no special arrangements or considerations for them.

Israel: Has accepted gays into its ranks since a 1993 decision banning restrictions on recruiting them. There are occasional charges of discrimination, however, such as the dismissal last fall of a gay officer who had sex with a soldier at an army base.

Netherlands: Discrimination because of sexual orientation is prohibited by the constitution and homosexuals serve in the armed forces. While there may be some cases of harassment, it is not officially tolerated.

France: France has no official policy, but discrimination because of sexual orientation is prohibited by law. There is currently no debate on the issue.

Greece: Homosexuality is banned among officers in the Greek armed forces. If an officer is found to be homosexual he or she is forced to resign his commission. Conscripts may be exempted if they are gay, although they may insist on serving.

Hungary: There are no restrictions in the Hungarian armed forces.

Norway: There are no restrictions on homosexuals serving in the Norwegian military.

Denmark: Homosexuals were denied the right to serve until 1954. From 1955 until 1978, they were allowed to serve only in the Home Guard. In 1978, the Defense Ministry ruled that sexuality was not the government's business.

Italy: There is no official policy on gays in the Italian military, but gay men are often allowed exemption from Italy's compulsory 10-month military service if they admit they are homosexual and say they fear discrimination.

Finland: Has compulsory military service but men may be excused on the grounds of homosexuality.

Sweden: There is no specific policy on gays in the military and a Defense Ministry spokeswoman says it is not an issue in Sweden, which is generally liberal about homosexuality and gives legal recognition to gay partnership

 

And what the F is this thread doin here.?

What has it to do with agnosticism or athiem?
NOTHING

shift it please

occam

 

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Peace and love ​

Yours Sincerely,
​

Cat Stevens​

​

Note: Silly, Irrelevant, and the like, responses, posts, comments will be ignored (it depends on my mood and time if I won't ignore them), taking off the topic is losers' style, ask yourself: will you write such response if the writer wasn't a Muslim!​

 

I've never barked at Islam being against homosexuality, I'm against it too. So you can't be referring to me. But I think the reason people may "bark" is because homosexuals are punished with torture and death in Islamic countries, which is a lot different to denying them joining the Navy.

 

Anaconda man​

I don't mean any member here! There are who bark in their TV channels, magazines, newspaprers, Protest etc. ​

Peace and love ​

Yours Sincerely,
​

Cat Stevens​

​

Note: Silly, Irrelevant, and the like, responses, posts, comments will be ignored (it depends on my mood and time if I won't ignore them), taking off the topic is losers' style, ask yourself: will you write such response if the writer wasn't a Muslim!​