Whitepaper

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November 28, 2010 – The 2010 Department of Defense (DoD) Comprehensive Review Survey of Uniformed Duty and Reserve Service Members was conducted to assess troops’ attitudes toward gay and lesbian service members and toward “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT). Media reports indicate that of the 400,000 troops who were emailed the survey, approximately 110,000 responded, yielding a response rate of 28%. This research memo addresses two questions regarding this reported response rate: 1) How does this response rate compare to response rates in other surveys in the general population and in the military? 2) What are the implications of this response rate for interpreting the survey’s results?

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The Palm Center has released eight key recommendations to the Pentagon Working Group on gays in the military. These recommendations are intended as a first step in providing full support to the Working Group and acknowledging the importance of a thorough and timely process.
 
OVERVIEW:The Palm Center would like to offer its full support to the new Pentagon working group on gays and lesbians in the U.S. military and address the next steps for the “don‟t ask, don‟t tell” law and policy. We offer ten years of experience researching in this area, with a focus on gays in the military at home and abroad as well as on the “don‟t ask, don‟t tell” policy specifically. The Palm Center is housed at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has published over thirty books, book chapters, and journal articles on gays in the military. Nine of our studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals including International Security, Armed Forces and Society, and Military Psychology; others appeared in respected publications such as Parameters, the official journal of the U.S. Army War College.Although our independent findings—as well as the vast majority of other government, military, and academic research—have concluded that ending the gay ban will not harm military effectiveness, our offer of support and recommendations below do not assume any outcome. We hope to be one of many resources that the working group considers. The recommendations below reflect our “lessons learned” from extensive work within this field.