Constitutional Law

DADT on Trial: Gays in the Military? Yawn.

By Suzanne Ito, ACLU

This week, the ACLU of Washington is before the U.S. District Court in Tacoma representing Maj. Margaret Witt, a decorated U.S. Air Force flight nurse who was dismissed under the discriminatory and counterproductive policy known as 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' (DADT).

On Thursday, Day Four of the trial, Nathaniel Frank, a senior research fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America, testified on behalf of Maj. Witt.

Rob Carson of Tacoma's The News Tribune reported:

If Congress decides to let gay men and lesbians serve openly in the U.S. military, the reaction among the vast majority of soldiers is likely to be a big collective yawn, a leading historian said Thursday.

[…]Frank cited dozens of studies of other countries that have incorporated homosexuals into their fighting forces, including Canada, Great Britain, Israel, Germany and Sweden.

In every case, he said, fears about weakened unit cohesion, falling morale, dropping recruitment rates and heightened harassment and violence preceded the change. Instead, he said, the transitions went so smoothly, people were left wondering what the big deal had been.

'They found that, across the board, problems that had been predicted did not come true,' Frank said.

Studies of integrated police forces and fire departments across this country have shown the same thing, Frank said.

In 2006, a Zogby International poll of 545 troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan found that 73 percent of servicemembers polled "say they are personally comfortable in the presence of gays and lesbians." The same study found that one in four troops who have served in Afghanistan or Iraq personally knows a member of his or her unit who is gay.

Additionally, more than 100 retired admirals and generals have formally voiced their support for repealing DADT. Meanwhile, public support for open service by gay and lesbian troops has grown by a remarkable 31 percentage points since the policy was first introduced nearly two decades ago. A February 2010 Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 75 percent of Americans believe those who are openly gay and lesbian should be able to serve in the U.S. military.

Or, as we've pointed out before, the sentiment might be: Gays in the Military? Blah Blah Blah.

Maj. Witt will testify this morning, and the Air Force is expected to mount its defense of DADT this afternoon.

Since 1993, more than 13,000 service members have been discharged due to their sexual orientation. At least 240 of those service members have been discharged since President Obama took office. The Senate will debate DADT as early as this week. Join the ACLU in urging Congress to act this year to finally end DADT once and for all.

Full post as published by Blog of Rights on September 20, 2010 (boomark / email).