Once Banned, Then Silenced: How Clinton's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy Affected LGBT Military

On September 20, 2011, the United States ended its "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time. I think we all know that gay and lesbians have always served our nation in all of its conflicts. An excerpt from the article:

"Barack Obama campaigned for president in 2008 with a promise to immediately overturn DADT, but the discharges continued during his first year in the White House. By 2010, several U.S. states (including Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire) had legalized same-sex marriage.

Later that year, the Pentagon announced the results of a report aimed at determining how a repeal would affect the military, and some 70 percent of U.S. service members surveyed said a repeal would have mixed, positive or no impact. Finally, that December, the House and Senate passed a repeal of DADT, which Obama signed into law on December 22.

After the repeal became official on September 20, 2011, it seemed to have a domino effect on other longstanding barriers within the armed forces. In 2013, the Pentagon announced it would lift the ban on women serving in ground-combat units. In 2015, the Pentagon added sexual orientation to the Military Equal Opportunity policy for the first time, meaning gay servicemen and servicewomen would be protected from discrimination."