‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ Was Repealed by President Obama 8 Years Ago On This Date

On December 22, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 to bring an end to the U.S. military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy, which banned service in the armed forces by openly gay individuals.

Why did it come up?

During World War II, the U.S. Armed Forces established a policy that discharged homosexuals regardless of their behavior. In 1981, the Defense Department prohibited gay and lesbian military members from serving in its ranks, stating that “homosexuality is incompatible with military service.” In the following decade, 17,000 service members were discharged from their duties due to their sexual orientation.

This led to the establishment of the DADT policy during the Clinton administration, which allowed gay and lesbian citizens to serve in the armed forces if they didn’t make their sexual orientation public. Commanders were prohibited from inquiring about a service member’s orientation, provided that they adhered to this condition. Additionally, the policy forbade military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual service members and applicants. However, by 2008, over 12,000 officers had been discharged from the military for publicizing their sexual orientation.

After President Bill Clinton established DADT in 1993, there were numerous constitutional challenges to the policy. Based on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Bowers v. Hardwick that there is no fundamental right to engage in consensual homosexual sodomy, the courts had uniformly held that the military may discharge a service member for overt homosexual conduct.

However, the legal picture was complicated by the Court’s 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which overruled Bowers by declaring a Texas law that prohibited sexual acts between same-sex couples unconstitutional. Subsequently, in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States, a federal district court held for the first time that DADT was unconstitutional on its face but later dismissed the case as moot when DADT repeal became effective. Likewise, in Witt v. United States Department of the Air Force, another federal district court held that DADT was unconstitutional as applied to a service member who had been discharged for homosexual conduct and ruled that the service member should be reinstated.

Ending DADT was one of Obama's major campaign promises, and it was one of the things he pushed for in the 112th Congress’ lame duck session before the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives after the 2010 elections. At the time, Obama stated:

"We need to provide certainty and it's time for us to move this policy forward. And this should not be a partisan issue.  This is an issue, as I said, where you've got a sizable portion of the American people squarely behind the notion that folks who are willing to serve on our behalf should be treated fairly and equally."

Numerous groups lobbied on both sides of this issue. Prominent organizations in favor of DADT’s repeal included the Human Rights Campaign, the Center for American Progress, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Bar Association, and several notable universities. Evangelical Christian organization Concerned Women for America, the Traditional Values Coalition, and the Family Research Council were among the prominent groups lobbying against DADT repeal.

What did it do?

The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 established a policy for allowing gays, lesbians, and bisexuals to serve openly in the U.S. armed forces. This ended a policy that had been in place since 1993, which had allowed non-heterosexual servicemembers to serve only if they kept their sexual orientation secret and the military didn’t learn of their sexual orientation.

Implementation of the DADT repeal was completed 60 days after this bill’s singing, so DADT was no longer military policy as of September 20, 2011.

What has its impact been?

Since DADT’s repeal eight years ago, openly lesbian, gay or bisexual troops now serve in the military. At the five-year anniversary of DADT repeal, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter said that military was “stronger than ever and continues to exemplify the very best that our great nation has to offer”:

“I am proud to report that five years after the implementation of the repeal of ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell’ our military, drawn from a cross-section of America, is stronger than ever and continues to exemplify the very best that our great nation has to offer. The American people can take pride in how the Department of Defense and the men and women of the United States military have implemented this change with the dignity, respect, and excellence expected of the finest fighting force the world has ever known. As the memory of ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell’ fades further into the past, and we move forward together to face new challenges, we recognize that openness to diversity and reaching out in a spirit of renewed inclusiveness will strengthen our military and enhance our nation's security.”

Since DADT’s repeal, the military has made additional progress on inclusivity, including allowing transgender service members and establishing full benefits for same-sex military couples. Eric Fanning, the first openly gay Army secretary, was confirmed in 2016. The Navy also named a ship after Harvey Milk, the gay politician and former member of the navy who was assassinated in 1978, to honor the LGBT community.

Although there were fears about DADT potentially harming the armed forces, a 2012 UCLA study found that DADT’s repeal had “no negative impact on overall military readiness or its component parts: unit cohesion, recruitment, retention, assaults, harassment or morale.” In fact, the UCLA study found that after the military ended DADT, the institution itself improved, not just for gay service members, but for the overall force. Lifting DADT improved the military’s ability to do its job by removing unnecessary barriers to peer bonding, effective leadership, and discipline.

— Lorelei Yang

(Photo Credit: Chuck Kennedy, White House photographer / Public Domain)