One Year After Repeal of “Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell” There is This

"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"

"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."

"The dog did nothing in the night-time."

"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.

[Editor's note:  When predictions don’t pan out The Dismal Economist likes to ignore them, hoping nobody will notice and point out the error of his ways.  This is no different from everyone else, and one of the roles the DPE plays is to keep this from happening.  He happily points out the errors of others who made false predictions while steadfastly refusing to disclose his own.]

About a year ago the Congress and the President conspired to repeal the law that made homosexuality a cause for discharge from the armed services.  Opponents of repeal of course were horrified, and were able to add to their general hatred of gay and lesbian people the argument that if they were allowed to serve openly in the army, navy, marines or air force the national defense of the nation would be destroyed. 

Of course, this has not happened.  Here is one report on life in the military after a year of equality and freedom.

COURTESY OF LIZ CONDO - NEWSOBSERVER.COM

Army Maj. Heather Mack, left, and her partner, Ashley Broadway, take their son, Carson Mack, 2, on a tour of Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012. Mack is stationed at Fort Bragg.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/09/16/2347548/a-year-after-gay-ban-lifted-military.html#storylink=cpy

Military leaders and gay and lesbian service members say the year that has passed since the repeal took effect has been remarkable for what hasn’t happened. Recruitment and retention have not fallen off as some opponents of the repeal predicted they would. Harassment of homosexual troops has not significantly increased. Unit cohesion has not suffered.

In fact, some veterans who left the military under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” have rejoined. And some active-duty soldiers say cohesion has improved in their units, because people no longer have to completely guard their personal lives.

“Basically, there’s been no change in the way we do business,” says Troy Rolan, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon. “All our soldiers, they’re soldiers – regardless of who or what they are. They’re professionals. They do what they need to do to make sure everybody’s taken care of.”

Sgt. Maj. Carlos Gomez, a 25-year Army veteran and command sergeant major for the 1st Theater Sustainment Command at Fort Bragg, was with his troops in Iraq when the ban was lifted.

“No problems at all,” Gomez says. “It just seemed like there was not even a bump in the road.”

So what’s the lesson to be learned from all of this?  Kinda obvious isn’t it.  Well maybe not obvious to people who aren’t smart, you know, the kind of people that Rick Santorum claims are his supporters.