"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" becomes law

On 30 November 1993, US President Bill Clinton signed the defence budget for the coming year. The White House's brief press release mentioned billions of dollars and a higher pension for medal holders. Not a word about the fact that the law also contained a rule that would shape the lives of thousands of service members: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

And yet it had all begun with a promise. During the campaign, Clinton had announced that he would lift the ban on homosexuals in the armed forces. Barely in office, he met fierce resistance. The military leadership around Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell dug in its heels, as did influential senators from his own party.

The result was a compromise. The military would no longer ask about sexual orientation. In return, lesbian, gay and bisexual people could serve only as long as they stayed silent. Anyone who came out or lived in a same-sex relationship was still thrown out. Clinton himself called the solution a major step forward, if not a perfect one.

In truth, it was more of a step backwards. Until then, the exclusion had rested only on an internal Pentagon directive that a president could have changed. Now it was enshrined in law. From then on, only Congress could repeal it.

The consequences were enormous. More than thirteen thousand people were discharged from the service in the years that followed. Many lived for years in fear that a letter, a phone call or a rumour could end their careers.

It took seventeen years for Congress to overturn the rule. Only in September 2011 were queer people in the United States allowed to serve openly in uniform. The quiet stroke of the pen in November 1993 shows how a well-meant compromise can become a trap.