January 8, 2004

Newsfeed: Charles Moskos

Charles Moskos, professor emeritus of sociology and author of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy, discusses the ongoing debate

The military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy marked its 10th anniversary recently amid debate over the effectiveness of the law. According to Moskos, some Americans don’t agree with it.

Certainly gay advocacy groups don’t think it’s effective, though it’s certainly more tolerant than the previous total ban. And at the same time, even though we’re losing about a thousand a year, this is a small fraction of all who are discharged prematurely. Some are even thinking some of those who say they’re gay are doing it just to get out of the army in a quick and honorable way.

Moskos says the current law is more tolerant than the previous policy.

“ Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is the defense department’s policy, and that’s more mild, because it states “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Therefore you can be a homosexual so long as you don’t say it. Of the thousand or so discharges every year for homosexuality, about 85 percent of those are for telling, and the other 15 percent are mainly for people who were caught in the act in some way.

Moskos believes American opinion about homosexuality has shifted in the last decade.

I think there has been some change. But when you phrase the question, “Should gays and straights have equal rights,” you get one kind of response. When you phrase the question, “Should people of different sexual orientations be forced to live in intimate conditions,” you get a different kind of response.

Moskos believes the policy will not change in the foreseeable future.

It would take a congress to pass a law repealing it. This is not something that a president or a defense secretary can do by himself.

— Samira Puskar

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