Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: What Does It Really Mean to Us?

     It seems that no cultural text remains safe for long when it comes to its own definition or meaning. By “cultural text” I simply mean anything that we attribute meaning with: certain kinds of jeans we wear, television shows we watch, music artists we love, and the words we use.  By “safe” I mean protected from change in meaning. Just think of something as simple as flare jeans. Back in the day in middle and high school, you wouldn’t be caught dead in anything EXCEPT flare jeans. Now, it’s style suicide to wear them since skinny jeans are clearly where it’s at (that is as I sit typing this in my semi-flared jeans tucked into my boots in their sad attempt to look skinny). The meaning of flare jeans changed from “cool and stylish” to “out of date” and “played out.” Keep this example of a transition in mind.

   
 While my jeans example is easy to understand, you may be asking, “Who cares? What difference does it make? That’s just change in style. So, what’s your point?”  Sure, jeans may not matter all that much when they change in meaning, but what about words or policies? ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is just one example of a text that came to represent an idea or belief that goes much deeper than simply believing that gay people in the military should not be allowed to be open with their own sexuality. It came to represent that there is something morally wrong with being gay, lesbian, or bisexual and that it is something that will not be entirely accepted into our society. This policy sent a message to the people of our own nation, as well as to the world that, while we we acknowledge that gay people exist and should not be maliciously targeted, they will also never be fully accepted as equal members of our society. These four simple words, while research shows statistically had little effect on the actual number of people who were discharged from the military for being gay, may have had a bigger negative impact on the beliefs about them.

    On the other hand, when this compromise passed back in 1993, it could have been seen as progressive change for groups the more liberal groups, as well as anyone who was not heterosexual. This is because prior to this compromise, existing policies had been in place that blatently banned gay, lesbian, and bisexual behavior in the military, which lead to discrimination against people who identified as anything but heterosexual. It was easy to implement since questions regarding sexual orientation were on the enlistment application, forcing anyone not straight to either 1) lie or 2) give up on entering the military.  The ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ compromise removed these types of questions therefore allowing people who did not identify as heterosexual to participate in the military…so long as they kept their mouths shut about their sexuality. 

But, why did we have it at all? Why have a compromise that so obviously disempowers a group of people by silencing their right to be open about who they are? Honestly, what does who they prefer to be with have anything to do with their willingness, desire, and capability to serve the country? On top of that, since the time of the compromise in 1993 there has been a steady increase in the number of discharges for same-sex conduct up until 2001… (Hmm, coincidence? 9/11 and war time so now we’ll let you serve). However, keep in mind that further analysis of this data shows no statistically significant difference in the discharge rates for the two periods before and after the compromise. This basically means the compromise did a whole lot of nothing as far as discharges go so what is it’s point? Oh, yeah… to teach us that gays are bad.

     The controversy over defining the meaning of a cultural text creates these sites of struggle. We debate over the meaning, the effects the meanings have on our beliefs and ideas, and the power struggles they create for real people. You may think that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ has nothing to do with shaping beliefs about individuals and that is your right. Chances are if you think that, you would have stopped reading this a long time ago since words have no meaning to you, right? The debate over meaning is only the beginning though. The more important issue is the struggle that groups of persons face when meanings attempt to, and often times successfully stereotype, falsely define, negatively label, or unfairly associate them with something negative. While the meanings of cultural texts or words may be subjective and debatable, the discrimination that they cause certain people to face is much more concrete.
 

**The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy was repealed on September 20, 2011. It seems enough people agreed that this is no longer something we believe or should support. 
For more information on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and it’s repeal:
Friendfactor.com
NPR, “An Era Ends’