Don't Ask, Don't Tell

The policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” enacted in 1993 created a public argument about the morality of homosexual service in the United States Armed Forces. When viewed through different ethical frameworks both the reasons for and against the policy change.

Ethical Relativism:

The first moral framework used to analyze the policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is ethical relativism. Subjective ethical relativism states that there are no moral truths which exist universally and necessarily. Truths are only true to those who hold them at the individual level. Therefore be necessary to view this policy through the eyes of different individuals and understand how they view the policy. One person may oppose homosexuals in the armed forces due to religious reasons, while another may support the repeal of the policy for secular humanist reasons. Ultimately subjective ethical relativism would be unable to make any prescriptive moral statement regarding the issue because no person is ultimately correct in their moral claim.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” analyzed through conventional ethical relativism, one would have to look at the majority of the culture which held the view or the policy, since moral truths are only true for those cultures which hold them. Since a majority of people in the culture used to oppose homosexuals openly serving in the military, the morally correct answer used to be that it was morally justified to prohibit gay and lesbians from serving in the military. However, since times have changed and a majority of the culture believes homosexuals should be allowed to openly serve, it is morally wrong to prohibit them from serving. Again ethical relativists run into a problem making prescriptive statements on morality because m...

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...As long as people are not harming others in the private lives, the government has no right to legislate in the bedroom.

Also, the Republican utilitarian argument holds no weight. The exact same arguments were made against segregation that is now being used against homosexuality. Racists and sexists forewarned of chaos, both when African-Americans and women were allowed into new positions in the military. Their fortune telling was wrong then, but they make the same claims that this time it is different. As a military veteran, I know some people would be uncomfortable with homosexual comrades at first, but this is simply because of their own ignorance created by never meeting someone who was homosexual. Once the barrier is broken, people will find there are no more differences with gay services members then with African-Americans or any other hyphenated-Americans.