Protesting against Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, in Washington. Photo credit: Victoria Pickering
Looks like the homo-pocalypse didn’t happen. A study examining the state of the American military in the year after the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the country’s ban on gays serving openly in the armed forces, determined that the repeal has had no negative impact whatsoever.
The Palm Centre, a think tank dedicated to research on issues around gender, sexual orientation and the military, found that the repeal “had no overall negative impact on military readiness or its component dimensions, including cohesion, recruitment, retention, assaults, harassment or morale,” according to the report. The study flies in the face of claims made by prominent military officials who claimed that a repeal would have disastrous consequences for the military.
Though the Palm Center is, essentially, a gay rights’ advocacy group – and therefore perhaps not the most objective – the study’s authors included professors from the U.S. Military Academy, U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Air Force Academy, and U.S. Marine Corps War College, as well as acknowledged scholars in the area of sexual minorities in the military.
So, will this put paid to worries that a Republican administration would reinstate the ban? Maybe, maybe not. Leave a comment and let us know what you think.
