 |
Testimony
on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
By Gary J.
Gates
July 2008
In this memo, submitted to a congressional
subcommittee, Williams Institute Senior Research Fellow Gary
Gates finds that an estimated 65,000 lesbian, gay, and
bisexual (LGB) people are currently serving in the U.S.
Armed Forces; in the absence of "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" (DADT),
an additional 41,000 gay and bisexual men might eventually
join the military; and the military could expect an
additional 3,000 personnel to retain their positions each
year if they could serve openly and not be subject to DADT
restrictions.
|
 |
Effects of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” on
Retention among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Military
Personnel
By Gary
J. Gates
March 2007
This research brief quantifies how the United States
military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy affects
retention rates among lesbian, gay, and bisexual military
personnel. If the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy had not been
instituted, an estimated 4,000 lesbian, gay, and bisexual
military personnel would have been retained each year since
1994. The military intends to add more than 18,000 new
troops each year for the next five years. If patterns
observed in 2004 were to continue for the next five years,
the estimated retained LGB personnel would account for
nearly one in six of the additional troops required.
Effects of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” on Retention among
Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Military Personnel (PDF) |
 |
Lesbians and gay men in the U.S. military:
estimates from Census 2000
By Gary J. Gates, PhD.
October, 2005Very little is known about the extent
to which gay men and lesbians choose to serve their
country through military service. This lack of
knowledge contrasts with intense policy debates about
the compatibility between homosexuality and service in
the United States armed forces. Bayesian inference
techniques applied to data from Census 2000 that
enumerates characteristics of same-sex “unmarried
partners” provide a mechanism for estimating the size
of the gay and lesbian population currently serving in
the military and exploring historical gay and lesbian
military service patterns. Analyses suggest that rates
of gay men and lesbians in current military service
range from 1.32 to 3.78 percent, implying that at
least 30,446 gay men and lesbians and as many as
87,202 are currently in uniform. The findings also
show that gay men and, to an ever greater degree,
lesbians have served in relatively large portions in
all of the major military conflicts of the later 20th
century.
Lesbians and gay
men in the U.S. military: estimates from Census 2000 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
