According to the Service Members Legal Defense Network December 18th 2010 is marked as “defining civil rights initiative of this decade” .This is the day when the policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t tell” (DADT) overturned the Clinton-era. This policy was announced for the gays and lesbians serving the US military.

Discriminated Behavior with Gay Military Service Members

There were about 13,500 military service members who got dismissed by the DADT since 1993 to December 18th 2010 because they were homosexual. There was always a discriminated behavior toward the military service members who were homosexual.

What is DADT?

The term DADT repealed refers to an incident. This incident that took place for the first time in the history of the U.S, when the gay people had the freedom to look forward serving the U.S military. They had no more fear of reprisal, dismissal from military service or any other legal consequences as a result.

Now those individuals who might have been unable in the past can contribute and serve the military without being afraid of discrimination but with the grace.

DADT overturned by Senate’s Majority

DADT repealed when The Senate voted 65-31 including the Republicans — Sens. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined in the support.

Mark Kirk of Illinois, John Ensign of Nevada, Richard Burr of North Carolina, and George Voinovich of Ohio—along with 56 Democrats also joined them in its support. The lead Senator Sponsor of the bill was Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) called the ban on the gays as “inconsistent with basic American values.”

Identical Version DADT signed by President Obama

The identical version of the DADT repeal bill was passed by The House of Representatives on December 15, 2010. The labeled Bill 250-175 was signed by the President Obama. He believes that there should be no sexual orientation, race, gender, religion, and creed in the military.

Impact of Gays in Military

A survey based on a year was released Nov 30, 2010 about the impact of gays in the military. According to the survey report two-third of the military service members believed that there would be no negative affect on the troop morale of accepting the gay service members openly. The study also revealed that 92 percent people reported in a poll that they felt no negative impact on their unit’s effectiveness by serving with the gay person.

Effective Implementation of DADT

It is important to educate and train the military service members about the DADT repeal before it implementation according to Republican Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio. It is necessary that the military advisors make sure that there would be no negative impact on the effectiveness of the troops.

As the repeal of DADT. Advocacy groups, from the Service Members Legal Defense Network to the Human Rights Campaign strongly believe that DADT repeal is big step toward the fight for the civil right and anti-discrimination law in the U.S. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen was the first one who took initiative in suggesting that if the gay service members are accepted openly; it would actually strengthen the military for now and the future.