Nearly eighteen years after the controversial “ Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ” law was passed, the law that prohibited gay servicemembers from disclosing to the military that they were gay is officially over as of 12:01 AM EDT this morning.
In December of last year, President Barack Obama signed the law to repeal the ban on gay servicemen being open about their sexuality.
“No longer will tens of thousands of Americans in uniform be asked to live a lie, or look over their shoulder in order to serve the country that they love,” Obama said at the signing.
The controversial ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ law came into play in 1993 under President Bill Clinton. At the time, Congress was attempting to enact a previous ban on gay servicemembers as federal law. Clinton tried to call into legislation a law that would overturn the ban, but he was met with resistance and ultimately had to compromise – and out of that compromise, “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was signed into law.
Since its introduction in 1993, the Servicemembers Legal Defence Network estimates that upwards of 13,000 gay men and women were discharged from the military as a result of their sexual orientation being revealed.
According to a report by CBS, all “pending investigations, discharges and other administrative proceedings that were begun under the law” will be thrown out.