"I would not ask our Marines to live with someone who is homosexual..."

According to a post on Wonk Room, after changes made by the Secretary of Defense to America's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy, General James Conway had quite a bit to say. His general attitude is that he knows too many people in the armed forces who would not want to share a living area with someone who is gay and "would not ask our Marines to live with someone who is homosexual, if we could possibly avoid it." The General insists that homosexuals out in the open in the military "means we have to build BEQs [Bachelor/Base Enlisted Quarters] that have single rooms."

From the opposing view point Igor Volsky issues a compelling argument,
Marines are forced to do and live in a whole host of disagreeable conditions and it’s unclear why Conway wants to preserve Marine choice “in this case,” particularly since 'men and women of all races, religions, and values train together, sleep in extremely close quarters, and eat in the same mess halls without detriment to unit cohesion or military effectiveness.' Living with a gay servicemember, however, is apparently so insidious that Conway must carve out a special exemption for those Marines who 'wouldn’t want to do that.'

We send our young, and brave, and free, and willing to some of the most inhospitable places on the planet and give them little to no choice in the matter then what do we tell them? Deal with it. Deal with the sweltering heat, fierce cold, inescapable humidity, or harsh rain, but not a the openly gay, that is too great of an ordeal. If it were me, I would say chafing in the desert would be above my lesbian roommate on my list of problems.

Volsky also brings into question what "gay only" rooms would mean as far as living in general. He writes, "Should his [Conway's] request be granted, the United States will become the only nation (of the 25 that have dropped the ban) that segregates its servicemembers on the basis of sexual orientation" Segregation in the service? Didn't that end more than 50 years ago? Today, it just seems un-American.

There also seems to be little thought put into how the more clever enlisted would react to this kind of change in rooming. If it were me, and it's definitely not, I wouldn't mind my own room even though I'm not gay. Who is to say we heterosexuals wouldn't hide our own sexuality for a room without a roommate?