"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Revisited


		"Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

		Under the federal Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) law, openly gay people were prohibited from serving in the US military. In December, 2010, the US Congress repealed DADT, pending certification by the Pentagon and the President that the military was ready to implement the repeal. That certification was officially made in July, and the repeal of DADT became effective on September 20, 2011.
		The arguments for DADT were never supported by empirical research. Scientific studies and the experiences of other countries consistently indicated that gay men and lesbians can serve openly without hindering the military mission, provided that strong leadership is exercised and clear rules are enforced concerning nondiscrimination. The links on this page provide background information relevant to the military policy compiled by Dr. Herek. A more extensive review of the data is available in a 2005 chapter by Prof. Herek and Prof. Aaron Belkin, Sexual Orientation and Military Service: Prospects for Organizational and Individual Change in the United States, and in Out In Force: Sexual Orientation and the Military, edited by Prof. Herek, Jared B. Jobe, & Ralph M. Carney.




			How We Won: Progressive Lessons from the Repeal of 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell', by Dr. Aaron Belkin. In this 2011 ebook, Prof. Belkin argues that lessons from the repeal campaign challenge some of the left's most entrenched conventional wisdom about how to successfully set social policy.
			How to end "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell": A roadmap of political, legal, regulatory, and organizational steps to equal treatment, by Aaron Belkin, Nathaniel Frank, Gregory M. Herek, Elizabeth L. Hillman, Diane H. Mazur, and Bridget J. Wilson. In Attitudes aren’t free: Thinking deeply about diversity in the U.S. armed forces, edited by James E. Parco and David A. Levy. (pp. 199-231, Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air University Press).
			Information about the 2005 chapter coauthored by Professor Herek and Professor Aaron Belkin, Sexual Orientation and Military Service: Prospects for Organizational and Individual Change in the United States.
			Read a brief history of the military's policies toward homosexuals and racial minority groups.
			A comparison of race and sexual orientation relevant to the military policy.
			Unit cohesion and the military mission.
			Read Dr. Herek's op-ed piece on the "Don't Ask" policy in the San Francisco Chronicle (March 6, 2000).
			Read Dr. Herek's 1993 congressional testimony on behalf of the APA and other professional organizations.
			Read Dr. Herek's 1995 expert declaration in the Able vs. Perry case.
			An extensive review of scientific data relevant to the military policy is available in Out In Force: Sexual Orientation and the Military, edited by Gregory M. Herek, Jared B. Jobe, & Ralph M. Carney.

Resources From Other Sites			The Michael D. Palm Center at UCLA.
			Sexual Orientation and U.S. Military Personnel Policy: Policy Options and Assessment, by the National Defense Research Institute (the 1993 RAND report).
			OutServe-SLDN (Servicemembers Legal Defense Network).


All original content of this website is copyright © 1997-2012 by Gregory M. Herek, Ph.D. All rights reserved