Don't Ask, Don't Tell Now

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Now that the U.S. Congress has passed legislation to strike down the "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) law, and President Barack Obama has signed the bill, gays and lesbians can now serve openly in the armed forces. The final U.S. Senate vote was 65-31, with eight Republicans joining 57 Democrats to secure the necessary votes after a last-ditch effort by Republicans to "block a final vote" was defeated on a 63-33 vote (Hulse, 2010).

Hence, 17-years of controversy during which time "thousands" of gay and lesbian soldiers were "forced" from their jobs in the military, have ended. This paper examines the views of those who supported keeping DADT as official U.S. policy, and those who believed it amounted to "government-sanctioned discrimination that treated gay and lesbian troops as second-class citizens" (Hulse, p. 1). Support for removing DADT as federal law The March-April issue of the journal Military Review featured an article by Lieutenant Colonel Allen Bishop, U.S.

Army (Retired) who reminded readers that the ill-fated DADT was responsible for "kicking out expensive and scarce Arabic linguists because they were gay" (Bishop, 2010, p. 117). Moreover, Bishop notes that due to DADT some 12,500 persons were discharged from the military over the past 17 years in an unfortunate and unfair "hemorrhage of talent" that constituted "a considerable expense" (117).

But, Bishop went on, more than just a costly move by the military -- to train these individuals and then toss them out due to their sexual preference -- this was a case of social injustice. Bishop references John Stuart Mill's essay called "On Liberty" in which the 19th Century philosopher wrote that the question of "…where to place the limit… between individual independence and social control… [is] the principal question in human affairs" (Bishop quoting Mill on page 118).

Mill went on to state (quoted by Lieutenant Colonel Bishop) that "The sole end for which mankind is warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number is self-protection" (118). The obvious first point in Mill's narrative is that Americans serving in the military don't need protection from homosexuals.

But secondly the point of bringing Mill's philosophical point-of-view into a discussion about gay and lesbians in the military is that they are "citizens, and what they do in privacy is of not concern of ours so long as it does not cause us harm" (119). Bishop continues, asserting that "The great irony involved with the military's rejection of gay and lesbian persons is that it is the special duty of the military to protect liberty" (119).

And given that fact, what logic is there in an institution [the military] "…expressly dedicated to the protection of liberty" that in turn launches a "wholesale attack on that same liberty as a matter of law?" (119). An article by Robert P.

Saldin ("Strange Bedfellows: War and Minority Rights") reviews the history of individuals and groups that had to struggle to obtain their rights in the United States: women's suffrage; blacks serving in the military; the voting age was reduced to 18 once it was clear a young man could be drafted to serve in Vietnam but couldn't vote for the politicians that would send him into battle; and finally, the ban against gay and lesbian soldiers has been lifted.

"Beyond military policy, the repeal of "Don't Ask" is important for the larger gay rights agenda, just as African-American service in World War II and Korea helped shape the evolving civil rights movement" (Saldin, 2011, p. 66). Opposed to removing DADT as federal law United States Senator Richard Lugar (of Indiana) voted against repealing DADT because he said he was "…concerned about the impact of lifting "don't ask, don't tell" on unit cohesion and combat effectiveness, particularly at a time when so many U.S.

Military personnel are engaged in combat-intensive missions in Iraq and Afghanistan" (Lugar, 2010, p. 1). Lugar was among five Senators that voted to put DADT in place in 1993 and also voted to keep DADT in place in 2010 (the others are Bob Bennett (Utah); Kit Bond (MO); Thad Cochran (Miss); and Charles Grassley (Iowa), all republicans).

Lugar admitted in his statement that DADT "…continues to be the subject of contentious debate within the military and among military families whose sons and daughters serve in the Armed Forces." He mentions high-ranking military officers (like General James Amos, Commandant of the Marine Corps) who are opposed to removing DADT, but doesn't mention that the Secretary of Defense (Gates) supported removing DADT. U.S.

Senator Thad Cochran (Republican, Mississippi) did not support the legislation to remove DADT because "…a change allowing a homosexual agenda within the ranks of the military will do enormous harm to the cohesion of units and their effectiveness in peace and combat." Cochran mentions that he serviced "during" WWII, Korea, and Vietnam and he believes gay and lesbian people.