It's been a year since the military's discriminatory 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' law was lifted, and servicemembers became free to serve openly regardless of their sexual orientation. Let's take a quick look at how some anti-gay prognosticators did when describing what an American military without Don't Ask, Don't Tell would look like.
- Have we reinstated the draft, as Tony Perkins suggested? (or as Cliff Kincaid suggested?)
- Did lifting the ban “break the All-Volunteer Force.” as Elaine Donnely said it would?
- Has the current state of our miltiary led to Nazism as Bryan Fischer claimed it would?
- Did Americans protest because Don't Ask, Don't Tell was "overwhelmingly popular" among them, as David Barton said it was?
- Do we now have "Prancing Drill Sergeants" as Linda Harvey predicted we would?
At the time these anti-gay soothsayers (many of whom are in our Commentartor Accountability Project) were making their bizarre predictions, the only thing open service advocates could say in response was "no, those things will not happen." The truth is, as ridiculous as most of the anti-gay predictions were - because they were predictions, the only possible answer was with different, albeit more logical predictions.
But now we're a year in. And now it's the media's responsibility to take each and every one of these absurd claims - many of which were repeated or suggested in mainstream reporting as well - and debunk them.
It's time for the facts to take over this conversation, now that we know what HAS happened. Which is nothing.