"Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was the official United States policy on military service of homosexual people for a period of over 17 years, starting in the mid-1990s. Instituted during the presidency of Bill Clinton, the policy was issued under Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 on December 21, 1993, and was in effect from February 28, 1994, until September 20, 2011. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons from military service. This relaxation of legal restrictions on service by gays, lesbians, and bisexuals in the armed forces was mandated by Public Law 103–160 (Title 10 of the United States Code §654), which was signed November 30, 1993. The policy prohibited people who "demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts" from serving in the United States Armed Forces, because their presence "would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability".
The act prohibited any non-heterosexual person from disclosing their sexual orientation or from speaking about any same-sex relationships, including marriages or other familial attributes, while serving in the United States Armed Forces. The act specified that service members who disclose that they are homosexual or engage in homosexual conduct should be separated (discharged) except when a service member's conduct was "for the purpose of avoiding or terminating military service" or when it "would not be in the best interest of the armed forces". Since DADT ended in 2011, persons who are openly homosexual and bisexual have been able to serve.
The "don't ask" section of the DADT policy specified that superiors should not initiate an investigation of a service member's orientation without witnessing disallowed behaviors. However, evidence of homosexual behavior deemed credible could be used to initiate an investigation. Unauthorized investigations and harassment of suspected servicemen and women led to an expansion of the policy to "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue, don't harass".
Beginning in the early 2000s, several legal challenges to DADT were filed, and legislation to repeal DADT was enacted in December 2010, specifying that the policy would remain in place until the president, the secretary of defense, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certified that repeal would not harm military readiness, followed by a 60-day waiting period. A July 6, 2011, ruling from a federal appeals court barred further enforcement of the U.S. military's ban on openly gay service members. President Barack Obama, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen sent that certification to Congress on July 22, 2011, which set the end of DADT to September 20, 2011.
Even with DADT repealed, the legal definition of marriage as being one man and one woman under the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) meant that, although same-sex partners could get married, their marriage was not recognized by the federal government. This barred partners from access to the same benefits afforded to heterosexual couples such as base access, health care, and United States military pay, including family separation allowance and Basic Allowance for Housing with dependents. The Department of Defense attempted to allow some of the benefits that were not restricted by DOMA, but the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Windsor (2013) made these efforts unnecessary. On December 13, 2022, DOMA was officially repealed by the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act.
Background
Homosexual activity had been grounds for discharge from the American military since the Revolutionary War. Policies based on sexual orientation appeared as the United States prepared to enter World War II. When the military added psychiatric screening to its induction process, it included homosexuality — then seen as a form of psychopathology — as a disqualifying trait. When the army issued revised mobilization regulations in 1942, it distinguished "homosexual" recruits from "normal" recruits for the first time.Bérubé, Coming Out Under Fire, 9–14, 19 Before the buildup to WWII, gay service members were court-martialed, imprisoned, and dishonorably discharged. During the war, commanding officers found it difficult to convene court-martial boards of commissioned officers. Consequently, the administrative blue discharge became the standard method for handling gay and lesbian personnel. In 1944, a new policy directive decreed that homosexuals were to be committed to military hospitals, examined by psychiatrists, and discharged under Regulation 615–360, section 8.Bérubé, Coming Out Under Fire, 142–3
In 1947, the blue discharge was discontinued and two new classifications were created: "general" and "undesirable". Those found to be gay but who had not committed any sexual acts while in service tended to receive an undesirable discharge. Those found guilty of engaging in sexual conduct were usually dishonorably discharged.Jones, p. 3 A 1957 U.S. Navy study known as the Crittenden Report dismissed the charge that homosexuals constitute a security risk, but nonetheless did not advocate for an end to anti-gay discrimination in the navy on the basis that "The service should not move ahead of civilian society nor attempt to set substantially different standards in attitude or action with respect to homosexual offenders." It remained secret until 1976.E. Lawrence Gibson, Get Off my Ship : Ensign Berg vs. the U.S. Navy (NY: Avon, 1978), 256–67 Fannie Mae Clackum was the first service member to successfully appeal such a discharge, winning eight years of back pay from the US Court of Claims in 1960.
From the 1950s through the Vietnam War, some notable gay service members avoided discharges despite pre-screening efforts, and when personnel shortages occurred, homosexuals were allowed to serve.
The gay and lesbian rights movement in the 1970s and 1980s raised the issue by publicizing several noteworthy dismissals of gay service members. Air Force TSgt Leonard Matlovich, the first service member to purposely out himself to challenge the ban, appeared on the cover of Time in 1975."The Sexes: The Sergeant v. the Air Force". Time. September 8, 1975. Retrieved July 26, 2011. Other prominent cases included Copy Berg, Stephen Donaldson. In 1982 the Department of Defense issued a policy stating that "Homosexuality is incompatible with military service." It cited the military's need to "maintain discipline, good order, and morale" and "prevent breaches of security".Fordham University: "Homosexuals in the Armed Forces: United States GAO Report", June 12, 1992. Retrieved February 27, 2012. In 1988, in response to a campaign against lesbians at the Marines' Parris Island Depot, activists launched the Gay and Lesbian Military Freedom Project (MFP) to advocate for an end to the exclusion of gays and lesbians from the armed forces.Vaid, Virtual Equality, 155-8 In 1989, reports commissioned by the Personnel Security Research and Education Center (PERSEREC), an arm of the Pentagon, were discovered in the process of Joseph Steffan's lawsuit fighting his forced resignation from the U.S. Naval Academy. One report said that "having a same-gender or an opposite-gender orientation is unrelated to job performance in the same way as is being left- or right-handed."Nathaniel Frank, Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America (NY: St. Martin's Press, 2009), 118–20; McFeeley, "Getting It Straight", 237-8 Other lawsuits fighting discharges highlighted the service record of service members like Tracy Thorne and Margarethe (Grethe) Cammermeyer. The MFP began lobbying Congress in 1990, and in 1991 Senator Brock Adams (D-Washington) and Rep. Barbara Boxer introduced the Military Freedom Act, legislation to end the ban completely. Adams and Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-Colorado) re-introduced it the next year.McFeeley, "Getting It Straight", 238 In July 1991, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, in the context of the outing of his press aide Pete Williams, dismissed the idea that gays posed a security risk as "a bit of an old chestnut" in testimony before the House Budget Committee.Stephen F. Hayes, Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President (NY: HarperCollins, 2007), 256 In response to his comment, several major newspapers endorsed ending the ban, including USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and the Detroit Free Press.Brian P. Mitchell, Women in the military: Flirting with Disaster (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 1998), 281 In June 1992, the General Accounting Office released a report that members of Congress had requested two years earlier estimating the costs associated with the ban on gays and lesbians in the military at $27 million annually.McFeeley, "Getting It Straight", 237; Vaid, Virtual Equality, 158-9
During the 1992 U.S. presidential election campaign, the civil rights of gays and lesbians, particularly their open service in the military, attracted some press attention.Schmalz, Jeffrey (August 20, 1992). "The Gay Vote; Gay Rights and AIDS Emerging As Divisive Issues in Campaign", The New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2012. See also: Schmitt, Eric (August 26, 1992). "Marine Corps Chaplain Says Homosexuals Threaten Military", The New York Times: Retrieved February 27, 2012 All candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination supported ending the ban on military serviceVaid, Virtual Equality, 160 but the Republicans did not make a political issue of that position.McFeeley, "Getting It Straight", 239 In an August cover letter to all his senior officers, General Carl Mundy Jr., Commandant of the Marine Corps, praised a position paper authored by a Marine Corps chaplain that said that "In the unique, intensely close environment of the military, homosexual conduct can threaten the lives, including the physical (e.g. AIDS) and psychological well-being of others". Mundy called it "extremely insightful" and said it offered "a sound basis for discussion of the issue". The murder of gay U.S. Navy petty officer Allen R. Schindler Jr. on October 27, 1992, brought calls from advocates for allowing open service by gays and lesbians in the US military, and requested prompt action from the incoming Clinton administration.Reza, H.G. (January 9, 1993). "Homosexual Sailor Beaten to Death, Navy Confirms", Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
Origin
The policy was introduced as a compromise measure in 1993 by President Bill Clinton who campaigned in 1992 on the promise to allow all citizens to serve in the military regardless of sexual orientation. Commander Craig Quigley, a Navy spokesman, expressed the opposition of many in the military at the time when he said, "Homosexuals are notoriously promiscuous" and that in shared shower situations, heterosexuals would have an "uncomfortable feeling of someone watching".