Quick Fact: Wash . Times , Fox News’ North advance claim that repealing DADT is a harmful “social experiment”
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on February 6th, 2010 5:43 am by HL
The Washington Times and Fox News host Oliver North advanced the baseless claim that repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” amounts to a “social experiment” and “social engineering” that would be detrimental to the military and “military readiness.” In fact, those claims are heavily undermined by the fact that other countries allow gay men and lesbians to serve in the military, and many have said it has not created problems.
Fox News’ North, Washington Times advance claim that repealing ban is a “social experiment” that affects “military readiness”
North: Obama is treating military “like lab rats in a radical social experiment.” Oliver North, host of Fox News’ War Stories, said on the February 4 edition of Fox News’ Hannity that repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” is a “stunning assault” on the military and that Obama “now intends to treat them like lab rats in a radical social experiment.” He also said, “[T]his isn’t about rights. This isn’t about fairness. It’s all about national security. And, apparently, Mr. Obama has forgotten it.” Later, North said of repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell”: “Now, here’s what’s next. NAMBLA members, same-sex marriages. Are chaplains in the U.S. military going to be required to perform those kinds of rituals? Do they get government housing?” North added that repealing DADT “affects readiness and recruiting and retention.”
Washington Times quotes veterans groups saying Obama is using military as “social experiment” and “social engineering.” A February 5 Washington Times article uncritically quoted two veterans groups saying that repealing the ban would be a “social experiment” and “social engineering.” It quoted the American Legion as saying, “Now is not the time to engage in a social experiment that can disrupt and potentially have serious impact on the conduct of forces engaged in combat,” and Veterans of Foreign Wars as saying changing the law would amount to using the military as “a control group for social engineering.” The article also advanced false claims that allowing openly gay servicemen and women to serve would affect “military readiness,” reporting: “[S]pokesmen for the VFW and the Legion told The Washington Times on Wednesday their groups do not want to see military readiness disrupted while the armed forces are fighting two wars.”
FACT: Other countries allow gay men and lesbians to serve openly without problems
At least 25 nations — including many U.S. allies — allow military service by openly gay people. According to the Palm Center, as of June 2009, 25 nations allowed military service by openly gay people, including North America Treaty Organization member countries Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
GAO: Other countries say allowing gays to serve openly “has not created problems in the military.” In a June 1993 report to Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) studied four countries that allow gay men and lesbians to serve in the military — Canada, Israel, Germany, and Sweden — and found that military officials said “the presence of homosexuals has not created problems in the military because homosexuality is not an issue in the military or in society at large.” It also found that “[m]ilitary officials from each country said that, on the basis of their experience, the inclusion of homosexuals in their militaries has not adversely affected unit readiness, effectiveness, cohesion, or morale.” GAO wrote that it chose those four countries to study because they “generally reflect Western cultural values yet still provide a range of ethnic diversity” and have similarly sized militaries.
None of the 104 experts interviewed for studies believed decisions to lift gay bans in U.K., Canada, Israel, or Australia undermined military readiness, recruiting, or cohesion. In a 2003 article for Parameters, the U.S. Army War College Quarterly, Aaron Belkin, a University of California at Santa Barbara professor who specializes in sexuality and the military, wrote that the university’s Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military had conducted studies of the impact of the decisions to lift bans on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military in the United Kingdom, Israel, Canada, and Australia, and found: “Not a single one of the 104 experts interviewed believed that the Australian, Canadian, Israeli, or British decisions to lift their gay bans undermined military performance, readiness, or cohesion, led to increased difficulties in recruiting or retention, or increased the rate of HIV infection among the troops.” According to Belkin: “To prepare the case studies, every identifiable pro-gay and anti-gay expert on the policy change in each country was interviewed, including officers and enlisted personnel, ministry representatives, academics, veterans, politicians, and nongovernmental observers. During each interview, experts were asked to recommend additional contacts, all of whom were contacted.”
