During his first term, Clinton questioned whether or not the military would strike down its discriminatory policy of barring those of the homosexual community from the military. After all, he campaigned with the message that all citizens could serve. However, his Joint Chiefs of Staff opposed him. Colin Powell, the president's chief military advisor, argued that there was already no sense of privacy in the miltiary. He raised that this was no civil rights issue comparable to previously segregated and discriminated Africans Americans because homosexuality was believed not to be a "benign characteristic." Despite his opposition to Clinton, he did propose that the government could just "stop asking" whether or not recruits were homosexual. During the 1980s, the military spent millions to investigate and remove 17,000 homosexuals from their ranks.
With backlash from both sides of the political aisle, Clinton's answer for the controversy was a compromise known as DADT. Proposed on July 19, 1993, "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) mandated that closeted members were allowed to serve, but those who were openly homosexual would be barred from service. The distinct progress made was that Clinton was hoping to halt aggressive efforts to root homosexuals out of the military. However, gay rights groups were not satisfied as people could still not freely and openly serve.
President Clinton himself admitted that it wasn't what he fully wanted. He called it "an honorable compromise." After all, Clinton believed that he did end a witchhunt of sorts in the armed forces. Commanders now couldn't ask if a soldier was homosexual or not. There was still protocol for one to be discharged from the military if he/ she was found to have partaken in any form of homosexual conduct found (on base or off).
He hoped to improve troop cohesion in the armed forces and also establish some right to privacy. In the end, his policy was limited in scope and had loopholes. The policy was officially repealed by President Obama in September of 2011, finally allowing those who were openly homosexual to serve our country.
Sources:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/10/the-awkward-clinton-era-debate-over-dont-ask-dont-tell/381374/
https://cmrlink.org/content/article/34488
http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1598653,00.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/20/news/20iht-gay_1.html
Even though the DADT policy was in place, there were many people who challenge it in hope for making change. For example, in 2003, three retired high-ranking military officials publicly disclosed their homosexuality, and challenged the legitimacy of the law. Without many of these individual efforts, perhaps the repeal of the this policy wouldn't have happened the same way. Source: http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/military_history.html
ReplyDeleteDon't Ask Don't Tell is a very interesting compromise. It allowed people who might have been gay to participate in the military, but it still maintained the stigma around being homosexual as it was something that should not be discussed. It seems to me that this could have done more harm than good to the mental states of people who were struggling with their sexuality, because it reinforced the idea that it was something that shouldn't be discussed and therefore was shameful
ReplyDelete