Excerpt from Assessment of the Plan to Lift the Ban on Homosexuals in the Military: Hearings Before the Military Forces and Personnel Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress, First Session; Hearings Held July 21, 22 and 23, 1993 The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a.m. in room 2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ike Skelton (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Opening Statement Of Hon. Ike Skelton, A Representative From Missouri, Chairman, Military Forces And Personnel Subcommittee Mr. Skelton. The subcommittee will now come to order. Today the subcommittee turns its attention to one of the most controversial issues confronting the nation today, lifting the ban on homosexuals in the military. The time constraints between the President's announcement and the markup is seven days, five days from now. Undoubtedly, we will write into law and codify the policy. We must, in our subcommittee and hence the committee, write it to be fair to all uniformed personnel, write it to ensure unit cohesion, to keep our fighting forces the best because second place does not count in the battlefield, and write it to meet the constitutional standards. All of this we must do within five days. Over the course of the next two days, the subcommittee will conduct four hearings to assess the plan announced by the President on Monday. During the morning and afternoon sessions today, the subcommittee will focus on understanding the President's policy, determining the level of support for that policy within the Department of Defense and determining if the policy is feasible, practical and understandable. Tomorrow there is another full day of hearings scheduled. The subcommittee will turn its attention to important legal questions, to determine if the policy is defendable and, of course, workable on an installation level, and most important, constitutionally. The statement of the President appears to continue the policy regarding homosexuals in the military which existed prior to January 1993. The policy seems to describe homosexuality as incompatible with military service, but it just does not say it clearly. With this policy, the President appears to have accepted the principle that attitudes among the people of a unit do make a difference and must be considered. This is the old policy with a new name and a couple of twists. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Conservatives and liberals agree that President Bill Clinton's effort to lift the military's gay ban was perhaps one of the greatest blunders of his tenure in office. In this text, experts of both persuasions come together to debate the critical aspects of the gays-in-the-military issue.

When the "don't ask, don't tell" policy emerged as a political compromise under Bill Clinton in 1993, it only ended up worsening the destructive gay ban that had been on the books since World War II. Drawing on more than a decade of research and hundreds of interviews, Nathaniel Frank exposes the military's policy toward gays and lesbians as damaging and demonstrates that "don't ask, don't tell" must be replaced with an outright reversal of the gay ban. Frank is one of the nation's leading experts on gays in the military, and in his evenhanded and always scrupulously documented chronicle, he reveals how the ban on open gays and lesbians in the U.S. military has greatly increased discharges, hampered recruitment, and—contrary to the rationale offered by proponents of the ban—led to lower morale and cohesion within military ranks. Frank does not shy away from tackling controversial issues, and he presents indisputable evidence showing that gays already serve openly without causing problems, and that the policy itself is weakening the military it was supposed to protect. In addition to the moral pitfalls of the gay ban, Frank shows the practical damage it has wrought. Most recently, the discharge of valuable Arabic translators (who happen to be gay) under the current policy has left U.S. forces ill-equipped in the fight against terrorism. Part history, part exposé, and fully revealing, Unfriendly Fire is poised to become the definitive story of "don't ask, don't tell." This lively and compelling narrative is sure to make the blood boil of any American who cares about national security, the right to speak the truth, or just plain common sense and fairness.

Throughout history, homosexuality has been a complicating factor for men and women electing to serve in the armed forces of the United States. The right to serve became increasingly complicated when the Department of Defense responded to congressional legislation in 1993 by adopting a policy that later became known as "don’t ask, don’t tell" (DADT). DADT permitted homosexual members to serve in the forces, so long as they showed no evidence of homosexual behavior. The compromise policy remained in force until Congress passed the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 and finally, in September 2011, the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the US armed forces officially came to an end. Reflecting on the 20-year period governed by DADT, this volume explores the history, culture, attitudes and impacts of policy evolution from the mid-20th Century through to the present day. It not only provides insight to the scholarly field of how the most powerful institution in the world has viewed and dealt with homosexuality as it transitioned into the 21st century, but it is also poised to become a seminal collection for researchers in the decades to come. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Homosexuality. "Parco and Levy have produced a fine edited volume dedicated to deepening our understanding of the federal DADT policy. What has resulted is a deep analysis of the federal policies regarding gays and lesbians in the U.S. military. This volume is filled with rich descriptions and analyses written by the very best thinkers about issues pertaining to gays and lesbians in the U.S. military. Parco and Levy not only offer a comprehensive treatment of DADT, but their book will stand the test of time and spur additional important research about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer service members. The Rise and Fall of DADT is accessibly written and offers readers a comprehensive understanding of the DADT federal policy and the attendant issues of equity, social justice and ever-changing attitudes about LGBTQ people related to the U.S. military and to the larger American society." John P. Elia, Ph.D. Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Homosexuality and Professor and Associate Chair of Health Education at San Francisco State University, USA "As Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs from 2010 to 2012, and the first openly-gay senior official to serve at the Pentagon, I was witness to and honored to be an active participant in the historic process that led to the ban on discrimination against lesbian and gay service members: men and women who had been hiding in plain sight while risking their lives to serve their country honorably. In this volume, Jim Parco and Dave Levy provide what is perhaps the most comprehensive account to date of the evolution of US government policy regarding LGBT service members. Their study includes outstanding firsthand narratives by many friends who played central roles in the repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t tell, including Sue Fulton, Jonathan Lee and former Congressman Patrick Murphy. Parco and Levy provide the opportunity for scholars, experts and ordinary citizens from all walks of life to share in those journeys and in the very positive results that were achieved." Douglas B. Wilson, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for the United States