What was “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and why did it face a lot of backlash from the LGBTQ+ community?
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First thing you need to understand is that prior to 1994, non-starlight people were forbidden from serving in the military. If a gay person signed up, then someone found out they were gay that person would receive a dishonorable discharge. This is the military equivalent of being both fired and convicted of a crime all rolled together. It’s the same treatment that a deserter would get, or someone who punched a superior officer in the nuts.
Similar to a criminal record, the discharged gay person might have a hard time getting a civilian job. It was REALLY a bad situation. Yet, lots of gay people felt that they had an obligation to serve and so they just kept their secuality a secret. And they hoped that the secret never came out.
Over and over this “no gays” rule came under scretunity. People would defend it, say that it was needed for battle readiness or other such bullshit. But it’s really important for you to understand that the people in the military took the rule extremally seriously.
By the time we get to the 90s it’s becoming not OK to discriminate against gay people. Still not all the way there, but moving in that direction. And so the president (Bill Clinton) attempts to allow gay people to serve in the military by just changing the rule. He gets a huge amount of push back from both Republicans AND top Military brass.
So a compromise. The military would be forbidden from asking if someone was gay (the “Don’t ask”). And military members would similarly be forbidden from coming out as gay (the “don’t tell”).
Those 2 rules in combination meant that it was now impossible for a superiour officer to find out, and confirm, that someone is or is not gay. Therefore gay people were now allowed to serve, as long as they remained in the closet. Even if some side evidfance is discovered, the military brass was not allowed to ask about it.
So “don’t ask, don’t tell” became the law of the land and stayed that way until 2011 when it was finally changed to allow out gay people to serve.
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