You could be discharged simply for being gay. Some superiors & fellow soldiers looked the other way. Some, identified as gay, were sent into combat, then discharged. "Stop-Loss" games were often played. Linguists, pilots, & other highly trained specialists critical to national security were kicked out. Pentagon research had proven all this was unnecessary.
AFTER DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL
You could still be discharged simply for being gay. Some superiors & fellow soldiers looked the other way. Some, identified as gay, were sent into combat, THEN discharged. "Stop-Loss" games were often played. Linguists, pilots, & other highly trained specialists critical to national security were kicked out. Pentagon research proving all this unnecessary remained undisputed.
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THE EXPLICIT BAN ON GAYS goes back to policies developed during World War II. It was the focus of the very first gay protest demonstration in the United States as shown in the pictures at left courtesy of one of its organizers, gay rights pioneer Randy Wicker. It was held at New York City's Whitehall Induction Center in September of 1964—five years before Stonewall.
While abuses in addition to discharge such as confinement to a military mental ward are virtually never practiced today, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is really little more than old wine in new bottles with a catchy label. Mainstream media, even some gay media, mindlessly and inexcusably echo Pentagon propaganda when they say things like, "Under DADT, gays can serve in the military they just have to be in the closet when they're on duty." This charade that dates back to the 1993 Summer of Shame is just as dishonest and reprehensible as it was the first time it was played.
"Don't tell" diabolically means you can't tell ANYONE at ANYTIME. Not even your mother. If someone ELSE tells your commanding officer that you're gay, the burden is on YOU to "prove" you're not or that, while you are gay, you have never engaged in "homosexual acts" and NEVER will.
The supposed prohibitions on the military—"don't ask, don't pursue, don't harass"—are violated at will and with impunity.
Bottom line? The same truth that goes all the way back to the barracks and battlefields of World War II: if your superiors like you and/or your superiors need you, doing nothing once they suspect or know is likely to be the order of the day. If they don't, Johnny's going marching home. [A highly disproportionate number of lesbians are discharged over gay men.]
What has changed significantly since 1993 when the policy became a combination of policies and law lumped under DADT is that every survey shows that a majority of voters now support allowing gays to serve openly in the military. And the studies that demonstrate that gays create no problems as a class, including some once secret conducted by the Pentagon itself and going back over half-a-century, pile higher and higher.
When being honest, opponents of lifting the ban will admit that it is not about gays themselves but about those who might be uncomfortable around them. In short, it is a law that shields and protects bigotry—at great cost not just to outstanding gay servicemembers but also to the nation's treasury and security.
1965 Pentagon protest led by Frank Kameny & Jack Nichols.
IN 1966, lesbian rights pioneer Del Martin suggested a protest in several cities on Armed Forces Day. She led the one in San Francisco, Harry Hay & Don Slater led a car caravan protest in Los Angeles, & Frank Kameny led a march from the White House to the Pentagon then flew to New York City to lead a protest there.
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At any one time, estimates are that there are around 65,000 gays serving in silence. At current rates, due to the shortage of troops which has, decade after decade, resulted in either lax enforcement of the ban or outright ignoring of it ["stop-loss"], about 1% of those are identified and discharged every year, 1-2 every day. A much higher number of gay servicemembers, estimated at 4000 per year, choose not to reenlist because they either can, or will, no longer live a lie. Thus, taxpayers pay twice: once to train servicemembers who happen to be gay, again to train their replacements after they're forced out. The military, while excellent at its primary mission, is notorious for its fiscal mismanagement. A study showed that the costs of the first ten ears of DADT came to $364 MILLION, while over and over already trained servicemembers from Arabic translators to Top Gun pilots say, "I'd reenlist in a heartbeat if I could serve openly."
While homophobic half-wits have visions of gay soldiers dyeing their camos pink, replacing their American flag patches with rainbow flags, and Pride floats and orgies on base parade grounds dancing in their heads, studies of countries and domestic police and fire departments where gays are allowed to serve indicate not only that such things don't happen but also that relatively few come out to their units at all.
And, though not everyone graduated with honors from "the Will & Grace generation," it's clear from a growing number of reports that, among the ranks, more and more nongays just don't care. What they do care about is whether or not the person contributes to their shared mission. As far back as 1947, an Army study admitted that "inverts" surpassed the average soldier in intelligence, education, and performance rating. Little wonder that of the some 16 million men that served during WWII the number who were discharged for being gay was in the low thousands. Regardless of how conservative one's estimates are of the number of gays, that's a lot of "looking the other way."
But discharges did happen, destroying lives, driving some to suicide. And, despite repeal, antigay discrimination IN the military continues. Why? Because the Pentagon is still too much like Jurassic Park where homophobic dinosaurs are still alive.
Recent DADT casualties Joseph Rocha, Anthony Woods, & Dan Choi.
1993 March on Washington - in center: SGT Perry Watkins & SGT Tom Swann
1993 Campaign for Military Service ad. "The Pentagon Wants to Lock Us Out. You Hold the Key."
David Mixner being arrested in front of the White House on July 30, 1993, protesting the announcement of DADT.
SLDN—the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network—provides FREE legal counseling to gay and lesbian service members regarding any military-related issue including the regulations governing military service by HIV+ people, and to transgender service members.
To schedule a free phone consultation with an attorney, please call
Please be aware that if you are using a government computer, server, or telephone, what you say or write may be monitored. There is no such thing as "private" communication when using military computers, e-mail accounts, or telephones—or even one's personal computer or cell phone on base or ship.
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Proving one doesn't have to be gay to get the injustice and inanity of banning gays from military service, former Pennsylvania Cong. Patrick Murphy, then , only Iraq veteran in Congress, became the chief sponsor of the House bill to repeal DADT after former lead Cong. Ellen Tauscher resigned to take a position in the State Department. In the second video, he challenges the invincible ignorance of Elaine Donnelly, one of the most vicious and vociferous opponents of integrating the military, during a 2008 House subcommittee hearing on DADT. She, in fact, believed that DADT was TOO LIBERAL.
The unintended consequence of gay advocacy groups focusing solely on DADT has been to diminish the power of numbers. The ban on gays in the military is over 65 years old and the total number discharged is certainly close to 125,000. Nonetheless, the 2007 display organized by Jarrod Chlapowski and Alex Nicholson of Servicemembers United on the nation's Capital Mall of one flag for each of the 12,000 gays discharged under DADT by then was a brilliant visual message.
