FollowNew York, 10.09.2012
A new study from the Palm Center has found that, nearly a year after the implementation of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) repeal, there has been no negative impact on the nation’s military. The Huffington Post reported on the first-of-its-kind study, whose 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.
The study finds that allowing gay and lesbians to serve their country openly has led to no negative impacts whatsoever – on things ranging from unit cohesiveness to military readiness. This is important – one of the biggest arguments made against repeal was that it would disrupt our military’s readiness during a time of conflict. GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney was among those who rejected DADT repeal using this argument.
One of the survey’s authors told the Huffington Post that the findings were a testament to the level of professionalism within the armed forces:
“It really shows that so much of the military comes down to leadership and clear guidelines. That’s what the Pentagon and service chiefs provided in the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ And that’s one reason the implementation went so smoothly.”
In the run-up to the 2010 repeal of the discriminatory law, polling found that a majority of Americans supported allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly. Since then, military officials have echoed this report’s findings and said that implementation of repeal has not had a negative impact on the military. But the support of both the majority of the American public and the nation’s military leadership didn’t stop the Republican Party from adopting language in their 2012 party platform declaring that “We reject the use of the military as a platform for social experimentation and will not accept attempts to undermine military priorities and mission readiness.”
This new study is just the latest evidence that the platform rhetoric is simply not based in any kind of reality. Learn more about the new study.
Source: HRC
Photo: Wikipedia
