Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: A Stale Policy
Since 1993, 13,000 troops have been discharged from the American military for the same reason. The soldiers have not been not out of shape or disabled in any way. Rather, these 13,000 brave men and women have just been true to their identities. All of these troops were discharged under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (or DADT) policy that has been enforced in the military since 1993.
Under this controversial policy, gays, lesbians, and bisexuals may only serve in the military if they do not exhibit homosexual conduct.
Soldiers are discharged if they partake in a homosexual act, declare that they are homosexual, or attempt to marry someone of the same gender. Since its enactment, the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy has been challenged and upheld five times in federal court. Despite the policy’s steadfast history, recent criticism suggests that homosexuals will soon no longer need to hide part of their identity while serving their country.
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was the brainchild of former president Bill Clinton. During a presidential speech, Clinton had promised that homosexuals would be allowed to serve openly in the military. Congress opposed this idea, and Clinton compromised with DADT. Clinton hoped that DADT would protect homosexual troops and put heterosexual troops at ease.
Before DADT, servicemen often harassed homosexuals in an attempt to persuade them to resign or turn themselves in. For instance, naval serviceman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. was assaulted and stomped to death in a bathroom by a fellow serviceman in 1992. “Blanket parties,” which consisted of several soldiers, were also known to torture gays in the barracks at night.
A blanket would cover a homosexual troop’s face before he or she was assaulted.
A 2006 Zogby International poll of U.S. military members found that 48 percent of those polled thought that homosexuals have a negative effect on unit morale. However, since the DADT policy makes homosexuals anonymous in the military, it keeps soldiers from blaming anyone for bad unit morale just because they are gay.
Since DADT was enacted, everyone from researchers to regular civilians have voiced their opinions. Gregory M. Herek, a research psychologist at the University of California at Davis, has concluded that “there is nothing about lesbians and gay[s]…that makes them inherently unfit for military service, and there is nothing about heterosexuals that makes them inherently unable to work and live with gay people in close quarters.”
According to Herek, the only factor keeping a heterosexual service member from embracing a homosexual service member is prejudice, and prejudice can be overcome. After all, homosexuals are just as able to serve in the military as heterosexuals. The American Psychological Association states that “empirical evidence fails to show that sexual orientation is germane to any aspect of military effectiveness including unit cohesion, morale, recruitment and retention.” The opinion of the public regarding “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” varies. A poll in April 2009 showed that 48 percent of Americans approved of the DADT policy.
A small number (8 percent) believed that the policy was too tolerant of homosexuals, and 37 percent thought the policy was too strict. In terms of the opinions of servicemen and servicewomen, a poll conducted in 2006 found that 26 percent were in favor of homosexuals serving in the military, 37 percent opposed to it, and 37 percent expressed no preference or were not sure.
With every passing year, the LGTB (Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Bisexual) community becomes more accepted in the U.S. Since DADT’s creation in the 1990s, the LGBT group has encouraged many large U.S. cities to have gay and lesbian community centers. Most colleges have support centers for LGBT students, and an increasing number of states are accepting same-sex marriage. Although only 17 years have passed since 1993, the citizens of the U.S. have become more open minded, which begs the question: does the DADT policy still belong in today’s society? In 2007, 28 retired generals and admirals encouraged Congress to repeal the DADT policy. These generals and admirals reasoned that 65,000 homosexual men and women currently serve in the military, and that there are over 1,000,000 gay veterans. In 2008, 104 retired generals and admirals signed a similar statement. Furthermore, in 2009, Colin Powell, former secretary of state, stated that the DADT policy had been “correct for the time,” but that “sixteen years have now gone by, and I think a lot has changed with respect to the attitudes within our country, and therefore I think this is a policy and a law that should be reviewed.”
President Obama, too, is jumping on the bandwagon. During the State of the Union Address on January 27, 2010, Obama said that he plans to collaborate with the military and with Congress to “finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are.” The State of the Union Address was the first speech of Obama’s in which he committed to repealing the law by the end of this year.
The majority of military forces in the Western Hemisphere no longer have policies that exclude homosexuals. Twenty six countries partake in NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), which commits its members to mutual defense in case of attack by outside forces. More than twenty-two of these countries allow gay people to serve openly in the military. In the European Union, Greece is the only country that does not allow homosexuals to serve in the army. As a result, Greece recieves much criticism from the other countries in the EU. In 2009, Argentina, Uruguay and the Philippines allowed gay men to serve openly in the military.
Speaking about homosexuals in the military, Consul David Saranga of the Israeli Consulate in New York City said, “It’s a non-issue. You can be a very good officer, a creative one, a brave one, and be gay at the same time.” Clearly, more and more people have been gradually accepting the fact that homosexuals are no less capable than heterosexuals of serving their countries.
Homosexuals cannot be harmful to the military. The number of homosexuals discharged from the military in the years following September 11 dropped significantly. While it may just be a coincidence that right after a devastating terrorist attack, the number of gays in the army decreased, there could also be a plausible explanation. When the U.S. needs people to fight, it is not choosy. When the U.S. faces an attack, suddenly who is gay and who is straight no longer matters; everyone knows that a homosexual fights just as hard as a heterosexual. Right now, the U.S. needs all the reinforcements that it can get.
“Our military has been stretched thin by our deployments in the Middle East,” said a U.S. general in 2007, “and we must welcome the service of any American who is willing and able to do the job.” In light of this statement, perhaps it was not such a great idea for the U.S. to discharge fifty-nine Arabic speakers between 1993 and 2009 for their homosexuality. Since Bill Clinton’s passage of the DADT policy, we have outgrown it in the past sixteen years.
Perhaps the American people have realized that if a person is courageous enough to fight for his or her country, sexual orientation does not matter. A person willing to die for his or her country should be honored, respected, and treasured, not persecuted by silence.
Indeed, homosexuals bring a unique perspective to the army, for they are always fighting two wars – one for America, and one for the right to express their true identities.
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