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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For a long time the US military banned homosexuals and others we’d today identify as LGBTQ+ from enlisting. If a serviceman was suspected of being secretly queer, an official investigation would be launched and they’d almost certainly be discharged.
In the 90s growing backlash against queer discrimination led them to revise this policy… barely. Essentially they moved from “stay out of the military, gay people” to “stay in the closet if you want to join the military, gay people.” The new policy was nicknamed “don’t ask, don’t tell” because a major point of it was that they’d no longer hold official investigations into soldiers’ sexuality (“don’t ask”), but would still be rejecting or discharging anyone who was openly homosexual (“don’t tell”).
Naturally the LGBTQ+ community considered this a slap in the face since it could barely be said to be a change from the old discriminatory policy. Queer servicemen still had to hide, they couldn’t complain if other servicemen found out and quietly harassed them over it (since that would mean “telling”), and there was a constant risk of being arbitrarily discharged if your superiors found out.
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