(06-21-2022 12:00 PM)ODU BBALL Wrote:  Perhaps you aren't familiar with the "Don't ask, Don't tell" policy of the past. They've had gays in for decades (at least).

They had them for decades before DADT. I'm fairly certain that in the 1960s and 1970s I never went to sea on a Navy ship that didn't have at least two gay sailors onboard.

DADT was actually a pretty stupid idea. One of the big arguments against gays gaining security clearance was susceptibility to blackmail (see the Cambridge Five). DADT makes that a very real risk, because of the penalty for being outed.