The High Price of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

Since the inception of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," more than 13,500 gay, lesbian and bisexual soldiers have been booted out of the military because of their sexual orientation. Losing that many soldiers certainly hurts our national security. But who knew that it hurts our pocketbooks, as well?

The Williams Institute at UCLA released startling numbers about the state of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." For every soldier discharged because of their sexual orientation, the Department of Defense pays upwards of $43,000 in costs. Add up all those soldiers who've been told they're not good enough to serve the country due to three magical letters (L, G, and B), and you get a grand sum of at least $290 million. That's quite the hefty price tag to weaken national security and ruin the lives of qualified men and women who just wanted to be all that they could be.

Tomorrow night, during his State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama is anticipated to talk about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." While nobody knows exactly what the President is going to say, a good number of bets are riding on the hope that Obama will say that the policy is ineffective, that it hurts our security, and that high-ranking members of the U.S. military want to see it retired. That would be huge news, and it would mean that tens of thousands of lesbian, gay, and bisexual soldiers would wake up on Thursday morning knowing that the "end is near," so to speak, of a policy that has kept them in the closet (and kept their partners there, too).

New estimates indicate that there are currently around 66,000 troops serving in our military who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual. That's not small potatoes. That's twice the number of troops that Obama included in his November 2009 troop surge policy for Afghanistan, and in total, it adds up to between 2-3 percent of the U.S. military personnel.

Minutes before his speech tomorrow night, Obama should take a few moments to reflect on these 66,000 troops. As David Badash over at The New Civil Rights Project says, these troops deserve to be treated like heroes, not pariahs, for giving up their lives to serve their country.

"Hopefully, the president will ask himself what impact losing 66,000 members of the military might have were DADT fully enforced — or if those brave men and women, serving their country, decided to come out," Badash writes.

Talk about the high price of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." It's not only expensive for our budgets. It's expensive for the soul of the nation, too.

Photo credit: The National Guard