Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell By the Numbers
Testimony Regarding DoD 'Dont Ask, Dont Tell' Policy
As Delivered by Secretary of Defense, Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
From the Center for American Progress' Fact Sheet:
Nearly 14,000 gay and lesbian service men and women have been discharged from military service since 1993. More than 33,000 gay and lesbian service men and women have been discharged from military service since 1980.
A survey of 545 service members who served in Afghanistan and Iraq found that 73 percent are comfortable in the presence of gay men and lesbians. Of the approximately 20 percent who said that they were uncomfortable, only 5 percent are "very uncomfortable," while 15 percent are "somewhat uncomfortable."
This policy may have cost the US government more than $1.3 billion since 1980.
According to research at the University of California, Santa Barbara, "No reputable or peer-reviewed study has ever shown that allowing service by openly gay personnel will compromise military effectiveness."
Twenty-four countries allow gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military. None of these have reported "any determent to cohesion, readiness, recruiting, morale, retention or any other measure of effectiveness or quality," according to the Palm Center, and "in the more than three decades since an overseas force first allowed gay men and lesbians to serve openly, no study has ever documented any detriment to cohesion, readiness, recruiting, morale, retention or any other measure of effectiveness or quality in foreign armed services." Even the British, whose military structure and deployment patterns are most similar to ours — and who fiercely resisted allowing gays to serve in the military — were forced to do so by the European Court of Human Rights, and have now seamlessly integrated them.
During the First Persian Gulf War, enforcement of the ban on gays in the US military was "suspended without problems." Moreover, "there were no reports of angry departures."
The CIA, State Department, FBI, and Secret Service all allow gay men and women to serve openly without any hamper on effectiveness or quality.
The GAO found in 2005 that discharging and replacing each service member cost the federal government approximately $10,000. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara found that the GAO’s methodology did not include several important factors and that the actual number was closer to $37,000 per service member.
This statement was issued by the Palm Center* on the failures of the gay ban:
It is important to pause any time someone says that discrimination is “working well” as policy. Senator McCain and Representative Boehner think discrimination is working well in the military. And if discrimination is their goal, they have a point. But this hardly means “don’t ask, don’t tell” is a success. My twelve years of research on this policy show it’s a colossal failure that’s had the opposite of its intended effect. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was supposed to make sexual orientation a non-issue so gays could serve discreetly while protecting privacy and cohesion, and sparing our military the unaffordable loss of essential talent. Instead, it has:
• wasted thousands of essential personnel, including Arabic speakers, and filled those slots with ex-convicts and drug abusers
• struck at the heart of unit cohesion by breaking apart cohesive fighting teams, and undermining trust, integrity, and honesty among soldiers
• hamstrung tens of thousands of gay, lesbian, and bisexual soldiers from doing their jobs by limiting their access to support services that are essential to morale and readiness
• invaded the privacy of all service members by casting a cloud of suspicion and uncertainty over the intimate lives of everyone in the armed forces
• cost the American taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars
In this climate, it’s no wonder that rumor and innuendo have led to witch hunts that have meant yanking gay soldiers from their units, even when they have followed the law and policy. The military itself knows the policy doesn’t work, as evidenced by the declining discharge figures now that America is at war — clearly commanders on the ground are ignoring a policy which is not serving them well. The idea that “don’t ask, don’t tell” is a success reflects a profound detachment from the reality on the ground. By every possible measure, it’s been a costly failure.
*The Palm Center is a think tank at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Since 1998, the Center has been a leader in commissioning and disseminating research in the areas of gender, sexuality, and the military.
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