386 Chapter 16
entation towards citizenship in which the citizen’s responsibilities
weigh more heavily than the rights. Barbara was not interested in
studying abroad out of self interest; she went because she was asked to
do so in service to her country/the Revolution.
Ability to Serve in Military to Protect the Country
In this claim there are more similarities to the US/European contexts
than others. As well as being important to the speaker, the right to
serve in the armed forces is an important index of sexual citizenship
in other national contexts. As Claudia Card notes, depending on one's
class positioning, in the US context this can be seen as alternately the
right to join the military, which for many working-class people pro-
vides opportunities to receive educational and other benefits other-
wise denied them, or less cynically, as the opportunity to show
allegiance to the state and fulfill the responsibilities of citizenship
(Bell and Binnie, 2000:64).
537 Look,
538 a homosexual man who is gay cannot enlist as a member of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces.
539 A gay cannot be a military man.
540 A gay cannot do his military service.
541 like the little boys do here
542 military training in case of a military invasion or whatever.
543 A gay cannot participate.
544 Why not?
545 He isn’t going to go to battle to have sex with anybody.
546 He’s just going to defend his land where he was born.
547 And I think this is wrong.
548 With Lesbians it is the same.
549 Lesbians cannot belong to the Revolutionary Armed Forces
550 or to battalions or a ton of things.
551 This doesn’t have anything to do with it,
552 And I think that it is really bad.