'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' costs military nearly $200 million
Nearly 9,500 gay service members have been discharged from the military under the policy.
The Defense Department's policy on homosexual conduct has cost the government about $191 million and 9,488 service members, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
President Clinton signed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue" into law in November 1993 after promising during his election campaign that homosexuals would be allowed to openly serve in the military. The law allowed homosexuals to serve as long as they did not openly disclose they were gay, lesbian or bisexual, in exchange for the military not asking about sexual orientation.
About 750 of the service members forced out of the military during the past 12 years because of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" held critical jobs, including those skilled in languages such as Arabic, Farsi or Korean, the report (GAO-05-299) stated.
Nearly 60 percent of those separated for homosexual conduct had completed a little more than two years of service, according to GAO. Four years is the typical length of a military service contract.
The Army discharged 3,307 service members for breaking the policy, while the Navy discharged 2,970, the Air Force discharged 2,413, and the Marines, 798, the report stated. More than 6,800 or 73 percent, of those discharged were male; about 2,500 were female.
Defense discharged 322 service members for homosexual conduct who were skilled in important foreign languages; 209 of those had attended the Defense Language Institute, auditors reported. Ninety-eight were considered proficient in reading, listening or speaking in foreign languages. Fifty-four discharged were training in Arabic, 50 in Korean, 42 in Russian, 24 in Spanish, 20 in Chinese and nine in Farsi, the report stated.
Eighty-three percent of the separations occurred because the service member said that he or she was homosexual, 16 percent because they engaged in homosexual acts and 1 percent because they married or attempted to marry a person of the same sex.
Lawmakers hoping to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" requested the report and specifically asked auditors to analyze the policy's effect on service members with critical occupations and vital foreign language skills. The report was requested by 21 House Democrats and one House Republican. It focused on the recruitment and training costs of replacing service members over the last 10 years, but was not able to measure costs on investigations, counseling and separation work because Defense does not track that data.
David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, responded to the report, pointing out that discharges due to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," were less than 5 percent of the service members separated from the military during that time period. He noted that drug offenses accounted for 31 percent of all discharges between 1994 and 2003, 20 percent were for serious offenses such as rape, indecent assault or larceny, weight standards accounted for 19 percent of the discharges, pregnancy for 14 percent and parenthood for 11 percent.
Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., is expected to introduce a bill Wednesday that would repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and allow homosexuals to serve openly in the military.
The legislation would establish a policy of nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation, but would not eliminate prohibitions regarding sexual conduct between service members regardless of sexual orientation. The law also would allow people discharged from the military solely because of sexual orientation to re-enlist.