The Pentagon is surveying 400,000 troops on the possible repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military, and gay-rights groups are calling foul. The survey, developed and administered under a $4.4 million contract with research firm Westat, is part of the Defense Department's review of the policy barring openly gay people from serving in the military, and includes questions about whether soldiers suspect people in their units of being gay. What does testing soldiers' "gaydar" accomplish? (Watch activist Dan Choi sound off on the military survey.)
Nothing. This is a waste of taxpayer money: Asking soldiers how they feel about DADT (the survey doesn't) could be useful, says Nate Silver in FiveThirtyEight, but encouraging them "to use their 'gaydar'" is worse than "useless." Since gay soldiers are, by dictate, closeted, the survey relies on "gossip" to predict the effect of openly gay soldiers on morale. And the soldiers most likely to see phantom gay colleagues are homophobes and soldiers in units where morale is low.
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