Background
2000-2008: By the late 2000s, momentum built for repeal:
- Public opinion shifted dramatically in favor of allowing open service
- Courts began ruling the policy unconstitutional
- Foreign allies (including Britain, Canada, and Israel) had successfully integrated openly gay service members without negative effects
- Barack Obama campaigned on repealing DADT in 2008
2008: Barack Obama campaigned on repealing DADT
2010: Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen testified before Congress in support of repealing the law. Gates established the Comprehensive Review Working Group (CRWG), which conducted one of the most extensive personnel studies in military history:
- Surveyed 115,000 active-duty and reserve service members
- Held town halls and focus groups
- Found that 69% of surveyed personnel had already served with someone they believed to be gay, and 92% of those reported the unit’s ability to work together was good or neutral
- Concluded repeal posed “low risk” to military readiness
Congress passed the standalone Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act in December 2010. The Senate voted 65-31, with eight Republicans crossing party lines. President Obama signed it on December 22, 2010.
2011: The required certification from the President, Secretary of Defense, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs that the military was ready. That certification came on July 22, 2011, and after a mandatory 60-day waiting period, DADT officially ended on September 20, 2011.
Primary Legal Documents & Congressional Documents
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-321, 124 Stat. 3515 (2010). https://www.congress.gov/111/plaws/publ321/PLAW-111publ321.pdf
U.S. Congress. (2010). Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010, H.R. 2965, 111th Cong. https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/house-bill/2965
U.S. Department of Defense. (2010). Report of the Comprehensive Review of the Issues Associated with a Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Department of Defense.
U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2005). Military personnel: Financial costs and loss of critical skills due to DOD’s homosexual conduct policy cannot be completely estimated (GAO-05-299). https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-05-299.pdf
U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services. (2010). The report of the Department of Defense Working Group that conducted a comprehensive review of the issues associated with a repeal of Section 654 of Title 10, U.S.C., “Policy Concerning Homosexuality in the Armed Forces” (S. Hrg. 111-1063). U.S. Government Printing Office. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-111shrg65073/html/CHRG-111shrg65073.htm
Academic and Scholarly Sources
Books
Gates, G. J., & Herman, J. L. (2014). Transgender military service in the United States. The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law.
Huffman, J. F., & Schultz, T. S. (Eds.). (2012). The end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell: The impact in studies and personal essays by service members and veterans. Naval Institute Press.
Nicholson, A. (2012). Fighting to serve: Behind the scenes in the war to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. Chicago Review Press.
Scholarly Articles
Alexander, S. E. D., & Westcott, K. S. (2008). Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell:” A smooth transition. Washington & Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice, 15(1), 129-159. https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol15/iss1/6
Alford, B. Lee, S. J. (2016). Toward complete inclusion: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender military service members after pepeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Social Work 61(3), 257–265. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/sww033
Belkin, A. (2013). The Comprehensive Review Working Group and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal at the Department of Defense. Armed Forces & Society, 39(1), 20-39. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X12466140
Kesler, L. R. (2010). Serving with integrity: The rationale for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and its ban on acknowledged homosexuals in the armed forces. Military Law Review, 203(1), 284-356.
Letendre, L. A., & Abramson, H. I. (2015). Backstory behind the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Touro Law Review, 31(3), 499-556. https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/lawreview/vol31/iss3/8
Journalistic and News Sources
Burns, C., & Rothman, A. (2012, September 20). The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell—1 year later. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-repeal-of-dont-ask-dont-tell-1-year-later/
Belkin, A., Ender, M. G., Frank, N., Furia, S. R., Lucas, G. R., Packard, G., Schultz, T. S., Segal, D. R., & Segal, M. W. (2012). One year out: An assessment of DADT repeal’s impact on military readiness. Palm Center. https://www.palmcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/One-Year-Out_0.pdf
Rostker, B. D., Hosek, J., & Vaiana, M. E. (2012, September 20). A year after repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. RAND Corporation. https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2012/09/a-year-after-repeal-of-dont-ask-dont-tell.html
Government Archives and Digital Collections
Obama, B. (2010, December 18). Statement by the President on the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 [Press release]. The White House. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2010/12/18/president-dont-ask-dont-tell-repeal-act-2010-historic-step
The White House. (2012, September 20). From the archives: The end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/09/20/archives-end-dont-ask-dont-tell
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010. (2010). National Archives Foundation. https://archivesfoundation.org/documents/dont-ask-dont-tell-repeal-act-2010/
National Center for Lesbian Rights. (2020, May 14). Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010. https://www.nclrights.org/our-work/legislation-policy/dont-ask-dont-tell-repeal-act-of-2010/