Hilarious or Hella Inappropriate: Naval Officer Emails Subordinates About DADT

Posted by Kevin Farrell on Sep 21, 2011 in The Hyperbolist | 24 comments

We found this email from a naval officer to his subordinate troops today on Reddit. Clever? Yup. Punny? Definitely. An appropriate ice breaker for a brave, new post-DADT world? Ehhhh… You tell us.

The comments on Reddit certainly make the writer seem like a credible navy officer, and he backs up his email with a claim that his subordinates know that he’s “a free-love hippy jokester at heart.” But something about this joke just hits us the wrong way.

If a superior straight officer sent the email to his gay soldiers, would it still be funny? And what of any closeted soldiers that did receive it – how do we know they took this “joke” lightly? I’m not trying to bust anyone’s balls here, but this email seems to be exactly the type of thing that the military spent months instructing soldiers not to do.

So what do you think?

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Oli

I say funny. Yes, the wound is still fresh, so it is hard not to take things as inappropriate. But I don’t think he said anything outwardly offensive, and it seems obvious (to me, at least) that he had no bigoted or malicious intent when he wrong it.

If anything, the humor seems to show the acceptance of the banishment of the rule. Plus, it was pretty god damn funny.
Brian

Inappropriate? Definitely. But the funniest jokes usually are. It’s not like the guy tried to take it too far, or pass it off as something serious. I mean, he signed the damned letter “Completely Bullshitting You”, so, really, what’s there to be offended about?
Ashley Valencia

Sorry but I’m going to stay positive and take it as a joke, since ya know, that’s what it is. Let’s save our righteous anger and offended points for stuff that is actually offensive. Also…I don’t like this new way of submitting comments. I’m sorry but what was wrong with the connecting to facebook/e-mail thing? It made life easier.

yasuya

j’agree, it’s pretty darn funny.

eric engle

humor always helps.
http://ciaranrr.blogspot.com Kieran Roy

Honestly, I think it’s pretty funny. And for all intents and purposes, we’re going to assume this commander is straight–so he *did* send it to his gay sailors, just not exclusively to them. (Incidentally, if they’re in the Navy, they’re sailors. Soldier is the term for a member of the Army, only. Marines are…well…Marines, and in the Air Force, they’re airmen.)

Something to understand about military culture is that good-natured ribbing is all in a day’s work. The married guys get shit about being married; the single guys get shit about being single; there are going to be jokes, no matter the subject. If there’s no harm intended, then there’s no sense in getting up in arms about it. Considering the tongue-in-cheek professional tone used here, I can’t read it as anything other than being sent in good humor.

And as a close friend and Marine said to me just today, the Navy has long ignored DADT for the most part anyway. If there’s a friendly branch, that’s the one.

Just my thoughts.
~KR
http://www.whatscottythinks.com Scott

Ok, being an openly gay male, I think it’s important to point out that while you are definitely picking something up on your sarcasm-o-meter, it probably has more to do with how government gets its dirty little paws into everything and, in doing so, invariably screws it up. This officer is mocking the government for it’s micromanagement of every detail, right down to ‘assigning homosexuality’ to cover a budgetary need. He’s silly and sarcastic and PROBABLY a straight boy, but homophobic? I kinda doubt it. I like intelligent snark and this is a good sample.
Michael

I think it’s more a laugh at how the military owns you once you join and would assign homosexuality as a duty to get funding. I thought it was quite funny.
JD Allen

It’s inappropriate and unprofessional. This email did not come from an officer, it came from an E6, an enlisted information technician IT1) and although he claims to be lighthearted and a jokester, he should have saved the email for distribution never.
Corey M

People need to chill out. This message is CLEARLY sarcastic and meant to make fun of the ridiculous fears conservatives had about the end of DADT in a lighthearted way. In no way does this seem malicious to me. I, a gay male, find it hilarious and would take it as a sign of support from someone in my ranks. People need to save the fire and pitchforks for things that actually matter and are offensive.
Peter T

I tried to be offended, but “assigning homosexuality” and “a lot to swallow at once” had me in stitches.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Gibson/100002083814952 Brian Gibson

I think that gay people can make some super inappropriate jokes like myself. I don’t think it’s that bad at all.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Michelle-Gohman/624819877 Michelle Gohman

I think this is the best way to have opened his door to his gay solders… The community razes itself more than that, worse than that, and to lighten the mood just like that e-mail did. I say props to the man who sent this out.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Luinne-DLlard/100001583873176 Luinne D’Llard

Dear Unicornbooty: Stop being so oversensitive.
Richard Oberholtzer

In all seriousness, I honestly appreciate the humor, and I believe that was his intention as evidenced by “completely bullshitting you.” The rough part is over, the “fight” is over. Some people obviously still oppose it, so if we can’t make light of it, how can we expect anyone else to?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1829651084 Una Anderson

wildly hilarious!! in no way disrespectful due to the absurdity of the request. for instance if they were to say they would be assigning femaleness, blackness, or veganism.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joey-Mitchell/1406675470 Joey Mitchell

It’s funny! Don’t be so uptight, it was clearly a joke… We got it repealed! Let’s talk about the word “f*g” that flies out of the mouths of too many gays!!!
William Leeper

Unfortunately, the title of this is slightly incorrect. The “IT1″ at the closing signifies that the sender is in fact, an Information Technician 1st Class, or E-6 on the payscale. Not to be picky or anything, not at all. I think it’s about time this was repealed, and this sort of humor is a big indicator on how much of a non-issue being G/L/B is for a large group of people in the military (Navy specifically..I can’t vouch for the other branches). As a submariner, I can honestly say that for us, it really doesn’t matter who you go home to, so long as we can count on you when the fan gets hit, you do your job so we can all go home.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1443795670 Joey Lopez

they forgot the first rule about EVERYTHING: WHEN YOU PUT IT IN WRITING, IT’S FOREVER.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1484041630 Keith Straley

So it’s good to know that this will be just as funny 10 or 20 years from now.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=563096824 Erika Yvette Figueroa

One, the person who signed this is not a Naval Officer. Which does make a difference. This is a mid career enlisted person who does not set policy. Two, this is funny and as a veteran I can see the humor in this. Three, his target audience is military members who get the joke about military bureaucracy and funding issues.

LGBT community must understand that there will be those who deal with situations with humor and it isn’t necessarily a slam against the community.

Crying wolf too often gets you ignored when the proverbial shite does hit the fan.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1484041630 Keith Straley

As a gay veteran who has experienced both the down-side of the now-dead
DADT policy and the hilarious bureaucratizing of Equal Opportunity
policies in the military, I can appreciate the humor in this email.

It’s kinda sad how over-sensitive our community can be sometimes, kinda “you can’t use that word, that’s Our word!” no?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1025700150 Maggie Strain

Look, if we can’t laugh at the sad hilarity of DADT only just now being repealed, what else are we going to do? Join the ranks of the overly politically correct, way-too-sensitive activists who get all up in arms about the wrong issues? And the way it reads, it seems that he’s more making fun of military bureaucracy than gays (much more so), so what about it really was offensive in the first place?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=753148904 Paul P. V. Brown

I’m a gay Navy vet, and think it’s great.

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