Can You Provide More Info on Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT)?

Question:

Let me ask you to share knowledge about this DADT process as I feel rather ignorant. First of all, what Bill Clinton did initially with DADT was most definitely an improvement on the prior policy, correct? As I understand, it was absolutely a crime to be gay (closeted or not) and active military - right? So with DADT, it did not accept or reject. OK, so one step up - right? Now, with the call for Obama to repeal DADT, I assume that means to be accepting of gays in the military, however, it sort of seems like repealing DADT means to revert back to the old concept of NO GAYS PERIOD. Give me your thoughts.

Cathy

Answer:

Hey Cathy-
This is a complex issue and a lot of people have a hard time figuring out what repealing DADT really means. You have specific questions. So, we'll start with that, but please keep in mind that there is a lot more to this and while we follow this pretty closely, especially since one of us was once in the military, but we aren't experts. This is just our take on it.

Here goes!

You asked- "First of all, what Bill Clinton did initially with DADT was most definitely an improvement on the prior policy, correct?"

• Ask the Lesbos reply - No. What Bill Clinton did was well intentioned but ended up making it much worse than it was before.

You asked- "As I understand, it was absolutely a crime to be gay (closeted or not) and active military - right?"

• Ask the Lesbos reply - No. Before DADT it wasn't a crime, just against a policy that Reagan instituted in 1993. Before Reagan, the military had an unofficial policy and relied on bigotry to enforce the feelings de jour. When Clinton enacted DADT he also made what was just a policy into a federal law, which then did make it a crime. That was part of what made DADT worse. The other part that made it worse was that a government entity was officially saying that gays were bad. Before it was just a whisper. After DADT it was set in stone. It socially entrenched the whole gays are bad attitude and spread it through an official government endorsement.

You asked - "So with DADT, it did not accept or reject. OK, so one step up - right?"

• Ask the Lesbos reply - No. What changed was that folks couldn't perform witch hunts any more. It was supposed to stop the harassment, but the harassment has actually increased.

You ask- "Now, with the call for Obama to repeal DADT, I assume that means to be accepting of gays in the military, however, it sort of seems like repealing DADT means to revert back to the old concept of NO GAYS PERIOD."

• Ask the Lesbos reply - Even though folks say repeal DADT that's not what is really being called for. The best case scenario is that Obama initiates action that simply takes gay or straight out of the equation so that gays can serve openly and fall under the same exact regulations that straights do. Just like heterosexuals are government property and have to abide by military comportment regulations (ie. toe the line), gays would too. No one knows exactly what Obama has in mind, but we're dying to find out!

I hope this helps- but let us know if you have more questions... we love that you want to know!