Advocacy Group Says Pentagon Survey’s DADT Questions Are Offensive
The military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell law has been controversial for years. So perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that the process of its repeal might also cause some controversy. Advocacy group Servicemembers United acquired a copy of a Pentagon survey that included questions about DADT–and they’re displeased with what they’ve found.
Among the questions the survey asks 400,000 non-deployed active troops are: “If Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is repealed and you are assigned to share a room, berth or field tent with someone you believe to be a gay or lesbian Service member, which are you most likely to do?”
Another question:
If Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is repealed and you are assigned to bathroom facilities with an open bay shower that someone you believe to be a gay or lesbian Service member also used, which are you most likely to do? Mark 1.
Answer choices:
Take no action
Use the shower at a different time than the Service member I thought to be gay or lesbian
Discuss how we expect each other to behave and conduct ourselves
Talk to a chaplain, mentor, or leader about how to handle the situation
Talk to a leader to see if I had other options
Something else
Don’t know
ABC News’ Jake Tapper spoke with Servicemembers United. One of the main issues the group found with the survey is that it starts out by incorrectly defining DADT as a rule that “generally requires that a Service member shall be separated if found to have engaged in, or attempted to engage in, homosexual acts.” In reality, the law allows the firing of a service member for simply saying, “I’m gay”–without “ever engaging in, or attempting to engage in, a ‘homosexual act.’”
Some other issues the group found with the survey are:
The group says that the question about how repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell might “affect your willingness to recommend to a family member or close friend that he or she join the military?” is “highly offensive and unnecessary. Would such a question every be allowed to be asked about blacks, women, Muslims, Mormons, or any other minority group?”
The group says questions about sharing a room, berth, or field tent “with someone you believe to be a gay or lesbian Service member” are considered highly inflammatory. “The real atrocity in these questions, which are some of the worse in the entire survey, lies in the answer choices, especially ‘Discuss how we expect each other to behave and conduct ourselves while sharing a room, berth, or field tent.’ The fact that this is even an answer choice legitimizes the completely irrational assumption or fear that gays and lesbians need to be ‘talked to’ about their behavior and conduct, lest they misbehave by default. Also the suggestion that someone may need to ‘talk to a chaplain, mentor, or leader about how to handle the situation’ is highly offensive. No survey would ever be allowed to get away with suggesting or implying such things about any other minority.”
[emphasis ours]
Tapper said he has asked the Pentagon to respond and will update his post when he hears back. While it’s unclear exactly what the Pentagon is looking to find through the survey, officials hopefully realize that military members are not oblivious to gays and lesbians working with them just because of this law. Aside from the tone of the survey, another point of contention is that the questions ask if DADT is repealed. This seems odd when the Obama administration has said all along that DADT will be repealed, and it’s just a matter of when.
Read the full survey below:
Dod Survey
