More Evidence Suggests Military Could Survive Repealing DADT
LatestJust one more reason the continued existence of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is incredibly frustrating: a new report says a majority of American troops think repealing the policy would have little effect on their performance.
Ed O’Keefe and Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post spoke with sources who’d read the 370-page report, information about which was already leaked to NBC. The report details the results of a survey of 400,000 troops, another survey of 150,000 military spouses, an anonymous online drop-box (to which gay troops were encouraged to submit) and several focus groups. The findings: over 70% of troops surveyed felt that repealing the policy would have a “positive, mixed or nonexistent” effect on the military. O’Keefe and Jaffe write, “The survey results led the report’s authors to conclude that objections to openly gay colleagues would drop once troops were able to live and serve alongside them.” The authors also made recommendations for handling the repeal, including allowing gay servicemembers to serve alongside other troops, rather than segregating them, and dealing with complaints on a case-by-case basis.