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Argument: "Don't ask don't tell" undermines troop morale and unit cohesion
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Supporting quotations
Kenneth Jost. "Repealing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' With the Presidential Pen." Blogger. October 8, 2009: "Within the U.S. military, “don’t ask, don’t tell” has hurt rather than helped unit cohesion. For gay service members, the policy fosters suspicions of their colleagues and diminishes military comradeship at a time when more and more straight service members have no problem interacting with gays. But for homophobic service members, the policy contributes to a climate that encourages anti-gay harassment and ignores it when it occurs."
Om Prakash. "The Efficacy of Don't Ask Don't Tell." Winning essay of the 2009 Secretary of Defense National Security Essay Competition: "The law also forces unusual personal compromises wholly inconsistent with a core military value—integrity. Several homosexuals interviewed were in tears as they described the enormous personal compromise in integrity they had been making, and the pain felt in serving in an organization they wholly believed in, yet that did not accept them. Furthermore, these compromises undermined the very unit cohesion DADT sought to protect: “I couldn’t be a part of the group for fear someone would find out, I stayed away from social gatherings, and it certainly affected my ability to do my job.”
