I expect simple behaviours here. Friendship, and love. Any advice should be from the perspective of the person asking, not the person giving! We have had to make new membership moderated to combat the huge number of spammers who register
If I had paid an expert PR agency to devise a questionnaire with the desired answer to establish or confirm that service people were prejudiced (against having 'out' gay people in the service with them) this would be a satisfactory response. The inbuilt bias is so extreme that it is almost laughable.
When I did my national service this questionnaire, I am sure, would have yielded the answer that service men (of course in those days there were no national service women) and yet there were lots of gay people and quite a lot was done to accommodate them (although it could certainly not be admitted that anything was done).
The first question I was asked (when I joined a destroyer crew as a coder) was 'Why are all coders queer?'. Thing is that I was eighteen and had never had sex or even a kiss from anyone but a parent or aunt and I didn't even know I was queer myself.
But when I got to know them the crew of the destroyer knew who at least some of the queers were and they were tolerated and not treated cruelly.
And by the time I finished my national service I DID know I was homosexual.
So my national service taught me something as well as giving me an 'A'-level in Russian!
Love,
Anthony
Location: Canada
Registered: December 2003
Messages: 869
... that the duplicated questions are a product of how the document was scanned, or something.
First impression: A minefield and an administrative nightmare.
Second impression: Could well instigate a "Witch-hunt" in the wrong hands. All those "Have you ever ... with ... believed to be Homosexual" questions simply scare me. Under the U. S. Uniform Code of Military Justice, just by answering yes to those questions, if push came to shove, and an identified respondent were asked the same questions under under oath and that respondent to the questionnaire refused to "Say Who" he, or she, could well be Courts Martialed for their refusal. It's small wonder the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (sldn.org), amongst many others is deeply concerned about this questionnaire.
The agency fulfilling the survey programme on behalf of the Defense Department says the returns are anonymous; but, my own experience in this field is that every questionnaire has an identifying feature (even if it's not apparent), and it's there principally to enable the surveying agency to remove a qualified candidate from their list once the survey is completed and returned and thus stop any further request that one do so. Now whether the fulfilling agency WILL LINK that data before compiling the results is another question; but, as sure as "God made Shooting Sherry", they do have that capability.
Additionally, just supposing they do, or do not, link the data, could the fulfilling agency be compelled to release link information?
In Canada, no; but, in the U.S. I just don't know; and that frightens the hell out me too.
Warren C. E. Austin
The gay deceiver
Toronto, Canada
Location: USA
Registered: April 2009
Messages: 429
Very wordy, dull, not at all a good survey. Whoever put together this survey does not know squat about psychological survey administration. 32 pages to find out one's opinion? I cringe when I think of the wasted millions of dollars which went into creating this survey, and schools around the USA are closing classes, laying off instructors, librarians, counselors, etc., etc.
Location: Canada
Registered: December 2003
Messages: 869
... I have an account with scribd.com, so I simply downloaded the .pdf and examined it in it's native format. The duplication exists in the originating file, therefore it is likely a scan error when creating the document before uploading.
Still and all, one further observation: There is no real, and compelling, reason for anyone to WANT TO COMPLETE this survey; it's decidedly, and most visually, unattractive, largely reminiscent of the "Shoppers' Pattern" surveys we've all received at one time or another over the years in the mail, the lure therein of course being the coupons (or in the very beginning the "trial" product) that would most assuredly follow our having responded; but here, there is nothing ... no eye-candy of any description (other than the rather officious-looking Defense Department Seal), no "follow-me" graphics, no "excitement", no sense of accomplishment in replying.
To my mind, in a survey of this nature, they would have been better served to simply have asked half-a-dozen straight-up questions about whether those currently serving in the Military perceived that there would be any issues surrounding the U. S. Defense Department abandoning DADT, or not, and if so what they might be; on the other hand, the SLDN does bring up a couple of valid point about why there is being a survey at all, and its' supposed necessity in the first place, especially considering none was thought to be necessary during integration in the late 40's and early 50's, nor again in the 70's when women were folded fully into the ranks. The military, regardless of which country's were speaking of here, does exist, after all is said and done, through a culture of "It's my way or the highway", or "Jump when I say jump and How High Sir! and when can I come down?"
Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada
Dear Raymundo,
I don't think it is 'badly' designed. I think it was designed for a purpose and that the purpose was to show that there was so much prejudice in the forces against gays that it would be unwise to allow them to be open hence the survey is designed to preserve DADT.
Ask youself what the instructions were that the designer was working to meet. Surely even the thickest market research survey designer could do better than this if the purpose was to find out whether abandoning DADT would be OK.
So, I conclude that the purpose is something else. Don't you?
Love,
Anthony
Location: USA
Registered: April 2009
Messages: 429
Yes, there are other purposes to the survey. I based my original opinion on educational testing classes and hands on test administration. Four tests which I can recall do not add up to the 32 pages of the DADT survey. Granted, an educational test and a sociological survey are two different tools, but both must follow guidelines of validity and reliability. DADT doesn't quite focus its goals, does not address its entended survey subject until a third of the way, and its questions tend to confuse the subject matter. More than likely, the DoD will get the answers it really wants.
A few other matters concerning the survey. There's no mention of the authors of the survey, their degree, their experiences or for who they work. The survey uses modes of questions which carry unforseen biases: multiple choice questions force you to make a choice among a select number of answers and your perfered answer may not be among the answers; scaled questions tend to begin at a point but there was no indication what or where that point is. Even participating in a survey can confound the results, where a participant knows he/she is taking a survey and tries to answers in order to make himself/herself look good.
All in all, Acam, it is a poor tool. Sorry for the academics but this is one of my strong points.
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13752
I find it interesting that there is no single question about DADT. That is what is to be repealed, allegedly. So why not ask about that?
The many questions about identifying LGBT folk are borderline offensive, as is constructing a biased situation about negotiating behaviour with folk you believe may be gay.
A friend of mine in Chicago, gay and out, feels the reverse. He finds the survey fair and equitable.
Dear Timmy, I find your Chicago friend's attitude quite astonishing and incomprehensible. What does he think the purpose of the survey was? What facts does he think it was designed to establish? Does he really think those questions could distinguish between a good policy and a bad one?
Love,
Anthony
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