Many on the left have been making a lot of noise about the repealing of “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell” (DADT) — a military policy that prevents openly homosexual Americans from serving in the military — but what they fail to realize is that they are simply playing a bit part in a drama orchestrated by a cynical power elite.
Now, there can be little doubt it is a discriminatory policy concocted by homophobes to fortify social mores once thought to be immutable. The policy has caused some serious harm to tens of thousands of U.S. service men and women and their families who have experienced untold emotional and financial suffering.
However, the context in which the discussion is unfolding indicates the ruling class is simply conducting the energy of equality advocates to satisfy their own interests. Repeal would, at best, be of middling benefit to the LGBT community, and at worst it would only satisfy the dubious purposes of Washington policy makers, doing little to advance the movement’s more significant demands.
A situation where one could fight and die for a country that prohibits him or her to marry is the antithesis of justice. That such a situation might arise out of the ostensible benevolence and understanding of military and government leaders, who have for decades campaigned to mitigate LGBT social integration, strongly hints at ulterior motives.
As is so often the case, those motives are clearly financial and, in this case, imperialist. With the military stretched frightfully thin across the globe fighting proxy wars of unsubtly malicious intent, a PR victory at home, especially one that saves money, poses a tempting option.
Since its enactment in 1994, DADT has been responsible for the discharge of over 13,000 service personnel, many of them highly trained in specialties including language and intelligence. In its first 12 years, the policy cost taxpayers approximately $363 million in recruitment and training costs lost on prematurely terminated personnel. In addition to this embarrassing waste of tax dollars, public opinion has finally come out strongly against DADT in the past several years.
Considering the military spent $4.7 billion last year trying to improve foreign and domestic attitudes toward its recruiting practices and regional belligerence, the high PR dividends a DADT repeal would pay make it a useful and cost-effective tool for winning “hearts and minds.”
So, here we are with President Obama adeptly advocating repeal to appease the LGBT community he has so clearly abandoned at every other opportunity. As Obama parsimoniously ensures LGBT electoral support, the defense secretary and chairman of the joint chiefs are portrayed as progressive champions of equality while discreetly fulfilling self-serving motives.
It’s worth noting that though Obama could have done away with DADT a little over a year ago, he has been emphasizing the difficulty and strictures of process in an apparent attempt to portray his efforts as more trying, and more sincere, than they really are.
In such a wickedly disingenuous game as this, equality advocates would be best served not dancing to the duplicitous tune emanating from Washington and, instead, focusing on the more important battles, namely marriage equality and discrimination mitigation through campaigns and legislation — a concerted effort to oppose DADT for progressive and anti-imperialist reasons would almost certainly highlight the high priority of the broader issues and open up avenues of support with other movements as well.
As it is, DADT repeal has become politically expedient only because it offers a clear benefit to elite interests — namely, the creation of a more effective neo-colonial force. With this in mind, progressives must consider: What type of liberation is it that comes at the expense of the oppressed peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan? Are LGBT people really being liberated by being allowed to fight for a system that treats them so unequally?
In spite of some notable improvements in recent years, the level of discrimination and social disjunction experienced by LGBT people in this country weighs heavy on their ability to integrate happily and productively into society. This trend is evidenced by numerous studies that have observed a differential increase in suicidal thoughts, mental health problems and drug abuse in the LGBT community.
After all, imagine growing up in a culture where myriad potential mentors, family and friends are transformed into constant tormentors by virtue of something as fundamental and irrepressible as one’s sexual orientation. In our patriarchal culture, homosexual and transgender persons are placed in the “other” category for their entire lives. Simple measures like marriage equality reform can go a long way toward building a more accepting society, one in which sexual orientation no longer poses a burden to sexual minorities.
In the absence of reform that targets the pillars of a discriminatory culture, we will continue to suffer untold economic and cultural losses on those citizens made ill by our society’s failure to nurture equally. While those reforms take shape, equality advocates should reject the military’s attempt to co-opt the movement with DADT repeal.
Sam Stevenson ([email protected]) is a graduate student in public health.
