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"Don鈥檛 Ask, Don鈥檛 Tell" and its repeal
For decades, the US armed forces sought to debar LGBTQ people from their ranks through a variety of mechanisms, and using a shifting array of justifications. Gay men and lesbians were variously denounced as 'sex perverts,' security threats, a danger to unit cohesion, and corrosive of combat effectiveness. But by the late twentieth century, overt anti-gay discrimination had become politically less tenable for the armed forces and their civilian Commander in Chief. During the Clinton era, the military altered its approach, introducing a policy known as 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' in 1993 which allowed LGB personnel to serve, but only so long as their sexuality remained 'in the closet.' DADT continued as official policy until 2011. In this seminar, we'll examine military homophobia; why DADT was introduced; how DADT functioned, and why it was ultimately overturned.
Indicative seminar questions:
- Aaron Belkin has explored the 'queerness' of the US military. How do we square this conception with persistent institutional homophobia in the armed forces?
- if DADT was intended as a 'compromise' between an all-out ban on queer personnel and acceptance of their service, why did many LGB service members regard it as 'worse' than the previous situation?
- why did DADT seem to have more pernicious consequences for lesbian personnel than their gay male colleagues?
- was the repeal of DADT in 2011 a case (as one writer put it) of 'progress where you might least expect it'? Why or why not?
Seminar slidesLink opens in a new window
Required reading:
Read Estes and Damiano; then either Bailey or Belkin and Embser-Herbert.
Steve Estes, Ask and Tell: Gay and Lesbian Veterans Speak Out (2007), ch.8, 鈥楾he Ban鈥�, pp.185-209, e-book
Christin M. Damiano, 'Lesbian Baiting in the Military: Institutionalized Sexual Harassment Under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue,"' Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the LawLink opens in a new window 7, 3 (1999): 499-522
Beth Bailey, 鈥楾he Politics of Dancing: 鈥楧on鈥檛 Ask, Don鈥檛 Tell and the Role of Moral Claims,鈥� Journal of Policy History 25: 1 (2013): 89-113
Aaron Belkin and Melissa S. Embser-Herbert, 鈥楢 Modest Proposal: Privacy as a Flawed Rationale for the Exclusion of Gays and Lesbians from the US Military,鈥� International Security 27: 2 (Fall 2002): 178-97
Supplementary reading:
Oral history resource:
Library of Congress, Veterans History Project, 鈥楽peaking Out: LGBT Veterans鈥�
鈥楶rogress Where You Might Least Expect It: The Military鈥檚 Repeal of 鈥淒on鈥檛 Ask, Don鈥檛 Tell鈥濃��, Harvard Law Review 127: 6 (April 2014): 1791-1814
Tarak Barkawi et al, 鈥楻ights and Fights: Sexual Orientation and Military Effectiveness鈥�, International Security 24:1 (Summer 1999): 181-201
Allan B茅rub茅, Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War II (1990) e-book
Aaron Belkin, Bring Me Men: Military Masculinity and the Benign Fa莽ade of American Empire, 1898-2001 (2012)
Aaron Belkin et al, 鈥楻eadiness and DADT Repeal: Has the New Policy of Open Service Undermined the Military?鈥�, Armed Forces & Society 39, 4 (Dec. 2012): 587-601
Lemer Bronson, The Last Deployment: How A Gay, Hammer-Swinging Twentysomething Survived a Year in Iraq (2011) e-book
Alex Buchman (ed), Barracks Bad Boys: Authentic Accounts of Sex in the Armed Forces (2013), e-book
Margot Canaday, The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America (2009)
Brandon A. Davis, Don鈥檛 Ask, Don鈥檛 Tell: Background and Issues on Gays in the Military (2010), e-book
J Ford Huffman, The End of Don鈥檛 Ask, Don鈥檛 Tell: The Impact in Studies and Personal Essays by Service Members and Veterans (2012) e-book
Elizabeth Kier, 鈥楬omosexuals in the US Military: Open Integration and Combat Effectiveness,鈥� International Security 23: 2 (Fall 1998): 5-39
Alycee J Lane, 鈥楤lack Bodies/Gay Bodies: The Politics of Race in the Gay/Military Battle,鈥� Callaloo 17, 4 (Autumn 1994): 1074-88
Kathleen A McNamara, 鈥樷�淓ven if the Policy Changes, the Culture Remains the Same": A Mixed Methods Analysis of LGBT Service Members鈥� Outness Patterns鈥�, Armed Forces & Society 47, 3 (2021): 505-29
National Defense Research Institute, Sexual Orientation and US Military Personnel Policy: An Update of RAND鈥檚 1993 Study (RAND, 2010) e-book
Alexander Nicholson, Fighting To Serve: Behind the Scenes in the War to Repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' (2012) e-book