Dont Ask, Dont Tell: The Law and Military Policy on Same-Sex Behavior - Report Example

26 Apr. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy: Many new laws and policies regarding homosexuality were formed and implemented. One of these policies was the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy that applied on the US military. According to this policy, people who indulged in sexual relationships with members from the same gender would not be allowed to serve in the US military if they tended to be overt in their expression of sexuality. It was believed that hiring of such people in the military would expose the US military to a lot of risks and challenge its exceptionally high standards of discipline, order and morale which were the most important qualities of the US military and could not be compromised upon in any case. It is important to note that at the time of implementation, this was only a policy, and not a law! According to it, neither was anybody allowed to investigate the sexual orientation of the members in service in US military, nor the members would discuss it with anybody. Thus, if gays and lesbians were to serve in the US military, they would have to keep their sexual concerns unrevealed. Contrary to this policy, the law did not prevent the US military soldiers from being interrogated about their sexual orientation (Burrelli). This has conventionally remained a very controversial subject on political grounds. For a long time, the number of US military soldiers who would be discharged for the charge of homosexuality was readily dropping until 1993. From 1993 onwards, US military soldiers have increasingly been discharged for being homosexual till 2001. In order to put forward a sufficiently comprehensive account of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, it is imperative that the reaction of American nation towards the policy is studied. According to (Mccabe), the opinion of public regarding the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy can be classified into three types. Some people think that gays should be given the opportunity to serve in the military, and their hiring should not be hindered. The second opinion maintained by the proponents of this policy suggests that gays and lesbians may serve in the military if they manage to hide their sexual interests and activities. The third type of opinion totally condemns the hiring of gays and lesbians in the military. The three types of opinions can be referred to in one word as “permissive”, “restrictive” and “prohibitive” respectively (Mccabe). Two main questions have conventionally been put in front of public to offer their opinion upon in the public polls. One of them inquires if the gays and lesbians should be allowed to openly serve the US military. This question essentially asks the public to convey their opinion with the condition that the servitude is “open”. Thus, if someone answers in negative, it is not clear if he/she would have maintained the same response for those gays and lesbians who would keep their sexual orientation unrevealed while serving in the US military. In this way, the wording used in aforementioned question distinguishes the permissible opinion from the restrictive and prohibitive opinions. The second question asks the public if gays and lesbians should or should not be allowed to serve the US military without any indication of open or restricted expression of sexuality. In this case, when someone says that they should be allowed to serve, it is not clear if he/she would maintain the same response if the question mentioned that the gays and lesbians would openly express their sexual orientation. In this way, this statement distinguishes the prohibitive opinion from the permissive and restrictive opinions. Since the time of implementation of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, a number of Washington Post polls and ABC News polls have been conducted in which the American public was asked to respond to the two aforementioned questions simultaneously. Comparison of the findings of these surveys makes it possible for one to simultaneously analyze the prohibitive, permissive and restrictive opinions. The following chart shows public response to the open service question: Change in the affirmative public response to the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy from 1993 to 2010 (Mccabe). It can be seen that from 1993 to 2010, more Americans have accepted the hiring of gays and lesbians in US military if they keep their sexual orientation secret than overt. American nation has become quite understanding towards the homosexuals over the years. This can be estimated from the fact that at the time of implementation of this policy, no more than 44 per cent Americans allowed open service, whereas in the poll of 2010, as many as 75 per cent Americans believe that the service gays and lesbians should be allowed to express their sexual orientation while serving in the US military. Nonetheless, it is noteworthy here that although, over the period of seventeen years, people have generally become more liberal towards gays and lesbians, yet even today, more people believe that gays and lesbians should rather keep their sexual orientation hidden. In the past few years, a lot of Congress members in US have raised their consent against the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. Two bills, i.e. S. 3065 and H.R. 1283 are specifically worth mentioning here as both of them represented the consent of Congress members against the policy in the 111th Congress and favored the replacement of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy with the nondiscrimination policy with respect to the sexual interests of US military soldiers (Burrelli). Owing to the growing pressure of Congress members against the 1993 law, Robert M Gates being the Secretary of Defense declared alterations in the enforcement of the law in department on 25th of March, 2010 (Burrelli). Secretary Gates further said that nobody but a flag or general officer would be in a position to take action against a person accused of having practiced homosexuality, any third party who would provide any kind of information would make a pledge for its claim, and that no information whatsoever passed over to such people as psychotherapists, domestic abuse counselors, lawyers, and clergy can be employed for the purpose of discharge proceeding. “Language was also included in the House and Senate versions of the FY2011 National Defense authorization Act (H.R. 5136 and S. 3454) that would allow for the repeal of the 1993 law, following certain stipulations” (Burrelli). Thus, the bill was finally passed and forwarded to the Senate for further action on the 28th of May, 2010. The Senate set a procedure to establish the S. 3454 bill on the 21st of September, 2010. However, the bill could not be finalized because of the failure of a cloture vote. US President Barack Obama has been totally against the anti-gay policy that has been in place for 17 whole years (Blumenfield). In December, 2010, the Senate acceded to banish the 17 year old policy thus putting an end to a highly turbulent phase in the history of civil rights in US (Lochhead and Aylward). Critics of the policy are of the view that it has caused immense loss to US ever since its implementation in 1993. Number of soldiers that have been fired since 1993 because of this policy is above 14000 (“Service Members”). US military soldiers would no more have to lie about their sexual orientation with the abolishment of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. President Obama considered this policy as something that used to make youngsters lie about their sexual identity and kept many potential soldiers from serving their beloved country because their love affairs would not be approved by the law (Wolff). Works Cited: Blumenfield, Michael. “Abolishing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” 2009. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. . Burrelli, David F. ““Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”: The Law and Military Policy on Same-Sex Behavior.” Congressional Research Service. 14 Oct. 2010. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. . Lochhead, Carolyn, and Aylward, Andrew. “‘Don’t ask’: Obama praises Senate’s gay ban repeal.” 19 Dec. 2010. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. . Mccabe, Brian J. “Public Opinion on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’.” 30 Nov. 2010. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. . “Service Members Legal Defense Network: About “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.” n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. . Wolff, Joshua. “Where Dont Ask, Dont Tell Remains.” 15 Mar. 2011. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. . Read More