About ten years ago, the Pentagon adopted the "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gays serving in the military. Since then, "don't ask" has evolved from a contorted compromise into a regulation that ill-serves the military and the country.
The most appropriate way to mark the anniversary of "don't ask" is to abolish it and let gays serve in the armed forces, as they do in practically all other developed countries of the world.
The recent discharge of 37 linguists in the military reveals how the policy can create a self-inflicted wound. According to the Washington Post, the Pentagon has discharged the linguists from the Defense Language Institute over the past two years because they were gay.
More than half of them were experts in the critically needed Arabic, Farsi and Korean languages. It has been widely reported that U.S. military, intelligence and diplomatic efforts have been handicapped by a significant shortage of Arabic speakers. That shortage has hampered security efforts in Iraq and made it more difficult to interrogate suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay.
On average, three or four service members, most of them younger than 25, are discharged every day because they ran afoul of `don't ask, don't tell."
The policy, which went into effect in November 1993, sought to quiet a storm that engulfed President Bill Clinton after he moved to lift the ban on gays serving in the military. The resulting pretzel-like arrangement allows gays to stay in the armed forces as long as they keep their sexual orientation a secret. No one was allowed to ask, no one was allowed to tell.
Since then, nearly 10,000 men and women have been discharged after their sexual orientation was discovered or they revealed it.
During the past ten years Israel, Great Britain and practically all the other NATO countries have lifted prohibitions against gays serving in the armed forces.
More important, societal attitudes have evolved. In the halls of major corporations and government agencies, barriers to the employment of gays have crumbled since the military compromise went into effect.
Gays hold elective office and serve openly in many police and fire departments. They should be free to serve in the armed forces as well.
In 1991, then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney dismissed the military's ban on gays as a "bit of an old chestnut." Yet the rule remains on the books, forcing thousands of men and women out of military service and undermining the best interests of the armed forces.