Pentagon Report: Fears of Out LGB Military Members Were Unfounded
metroweekly.comAn overlooked Pentagon report issued last year by the Joint Chiefs of Staff has debunked decades-old claims that integrating out LGBTQ soldiers into the ranks of the U.S.
Armed Forces would harm military readiness and unit cohesion.The 2021 report, issued 10 years after the repeal of the Clinton-era “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy prohibiting lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals from acknowledging their sexual orientation, examined the military’s response to out LGB service members during the period following repeal.
Crucially, the Pentagon report concluded that assertions that repealing the policy would be too “disruptive” to day-to-day operations were largely unfounded.While the stated purpose of DADT was to make the military more inclusive by allowing LGBTQ individuals to enter active service so long as they told no one of their sexuality, activists have noted that the policy actually made the military more oppressive of LGBTQ people.
When DADT was originally repealed, high level military officials, such as General Jim Amos, the former Assistant Commandant of the Air Force, were concerned it may undercut the military’s effectiveness.“The Commandant said he had no regrets about opposing the change during wartime, explaining that he had felt obliged to set aside his personal opinions and represent the majority view held by combat Marines who worried that repeal might diminish their units’ cohesion and battlefield effectiveness,” the Pentagon report says of Amos, according to the Military Times.
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