Don't ask, don't tell Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Don't ask, don't tell is the common term for the current policy toward gays in the United States armed forces. It was introduced in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, although crafted by Colin Powell, and has been maintained by Clinton's successor, George W. Bush. The policy requires that as long as homosexual men and women in the military don't volunteer their sexual orientation, commanders won't try to find them out. The policy is widely seen as a failure and opposed by pro and anti-gay advocates.
- "Sexual orientation will not be a bar to service unless manifested by homosexual conduct. The military will discharge members who engage in homosexual conduct, which is defined as a homosexual act, a statement that the member is homosexual or bisexual, or a marriage or attempted marriage to someone of the same gender."
- quoted in "The Pentagon's New Policy Guidelines on Homosexuals in the Military", The New York Times (Judly 20, 1993), p.A14.
- quoted in "The Pentagon's New Policy Guidelines on Homosexuals in the Military", The New York Times (Judly 20, 1993), p.A14.
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2 Overview 3 Situation in Other Countries 4 General 5 Source 6 External links |
Homosexual acts have always technically been illegal in the U.S. military. "Sodomy" has been one of the punitive articles (offenses) enumerated under the Uniform Code of Military Justice since its adoption in 1951, and before that was in its predecessor, the Articles of War. Justification for this has been in part based on the idea that homosexuals posed a security risk. However, this "risk" has generally been based on the concept that homosexuals could easily be blackmailed by an enemy or a potential enemy to perform treasonable acts on the basis of the fear of their sexual orientation being exposed, which the current policy would seemingly heighten rather than lessen. Another basis for separation of homosexuals from service is that their presence is found to be objectionable by many heterosexual service members. Homosexual rights advocates respond that this was the basis for segregation in the services, as many white service members, especially initially, objected to the presence of black and other minority members, and that cannot be a legal or moral basis for banning homosexuals from service. All would admit that sexual harassment of any sort would be incompatible with the "good order and discipline" that military service demands, and homosexual rights activists stress that they are not advocating the tolerance of homosexual harassment, or any other form of harassment.
Statistics on the number of persons discharged from the military in the years since the policy was first introduced (1993) show that more people are discharged now than were before. Also, more of these people are given honorable discharges than was the case before.
History
Prejudice against homosexuals in military service is as old as the existence of military institutions themselves. However, the levels with which this prejudice has been elevated to active attempts to segregate and then remove homosexuals from military service has varied greatly from time to time, especially at the official level. Informally, homosexuals and suspected homosexuals were often the target of "blanket parties", in which several other service members during the night in the barracks first covered the face of the victim with a blanket so he could not see any of his attackers and then beat him, often quite severely and occasionally even fatally. The frequency of these occurrences is said to be related at least in part to whether a "command climate" indifferent or favorable to the harassment of suspected homosexuals exists. Formal efforts to remove homosexuals have varied in their level of emphasis and tenacity between services, and at one time seemed to be somewhat linked to whether personnel shortages existed, at which point there was sometimes more tolerance (up to a point), and whether there was an abundance of manpower, in which case there was often more pressure to remove all active and even suspected homosexuals. This cannot be said to be true today, as the discharges of homosexual service members actually seems to be increasing at a time when personnel shortages are severe enough that the active duty tours of many enlisted service members are being involuntarily extended.Overview
| Year | Coast Guard | Marines | Navy | Army | Air Force | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 0 | 36 | 258 | 136 | 187 | 617 |
| 1995 | 15 | 69 | 269 | 184 | 235 | 772 |
| 1996 | 12 | 60 | 315 | 199 | 284 | 870 |
| 1997 | 10 | 78 | 413 | 197 | 309 | 1007 |
| 1998 | 14 | 77 | 345 | 312 | 415 | 1163 |
| 1999 | 12 | 97 | 314 | 271 | 352 | 1046 |
| 2000 | 19 | 104 | 358 | 573 | 177 | 1231 |
Judith Butler (1997) points out paranoid nature of the ban which conflates speech and conduct: "the statement, then, 'I am a homosexual,' is fabulously misconstrued...A claim that is, in the first instance, reflexive, that attributes a status to only oneself, is taken to be solicitous...to hear the utterance is to 'contract' the sexuality to which it refers...This is a statement construed as a solicitation; a constative taken as an interrogative; a self-ascription taken as an address." (p.113)
Most other Western military forces have now removed bans on homosexuals (with
strict policies on sexual harassment). The U.K. armed forces lifted its ban on gay people in 2000.
More generally, "Don't ask, don't tell" is used to describe any instance where one person has a secret, and another person would be uncomfortable knowing it, while also lying is undesirable. Applicable statements would be "I do not want to know", or after being told "I would rather not have known it". This is part of a more general tendency towards taking sexual identity as identity.
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General
Source
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