Acceptance of Gays in Military Growing
75 percent of Americans said members of the LGBTQ community should be allowed to openly serve in the United States military in a new poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News.
The statistic is a dramatic change from polling conducted 15 years ago, when the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was first enacted by President Bill Clinton. In 1993, only 44 percent of Americans were in support of allowing open expression of sexuality in the armed forces.
The results also showed an increase in tolerance from military veterans themselves. 71percent of veterans stated gays who adhere to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” should be allowed to serve while 50 percent said gays who are open in regards to their sexuality should be allowed to serve.
Eight out of 10 women support allowing openly gay soldiers to serve, as compared with two-thirds of men. When “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” first came into fruition 15 years ago, 50 percent of women supported gays in the service and two-thirds of men were opposed to it.
The poll results were consistent with another poll, conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2007, which reported a “major shift away from the highly negative attitudes toward gays.” According to the data gathered by Pew in 2007, 28 percent of Americans said local school boards should have the right to fire LGBTQ teachers, a marked decrease from poll results in 1987 that where 51 percent of those polled said school boards should have the right to do so.