By the Numbers
Detroit News columnist Deb Price has a great article this morning about Gary Gates and the Williams Institute at UCLA. Gates is the researcher who has found, among other things, that there are at least 65,000 lesbian and gay Americans on duty in the U.S. military. And, he has estimated, another 41,000 would enlist were it not for "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Price reports this morning that Gates has another new estimate about gays in the military:
"Gates loves having given the nation a solid number to chew on as Congress gets ready to reconsider the Don't Ask, Don't Tell ban on gays serving openly in the military. But his pet number right now is 3,000.
That's the annual number of gay people who don't re-enlist because of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and it includes the 600 who get booted out. With the military needing about 18,400 more people a year, Gates' 3,000 number means that just lifting the ban would get the Pentagon nearly one-sixth of the way to its target."
"The 65,000 number is the most extreme example of my making visible an invisible group," says Gates, stressing the difficulty of counting people ordered to remain silent. "But, in military circles," he adds, "the 3,000 figure gets more attention. We can say, 'Because of this single policy, you are losing 3,000 already trained and seasoned people who could really help you with your recruitment problem.' That's a big deal."
The research by Gates is immeasurably important in understanding the true impact of the military's gay ban. Because of his research, we have better insight into the real cost of anti-gay discrimination.
You can visit the Williams Institute online here.
- Steve RallsLabels: research, williams institute
-----04-02-07
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