Mental Health Effects of Don't Ask Don't Tell

Abstract

The mental health implications of the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy and the history of the relationship between psychiatry and the military on the issue of gay service members are reviewed. Before 1973, when homosexuality was removed from psychiatry's diagnostic manual, the psychiatric profession cooperated with screening gays out of military service. In 1990, the American Psychiatric Association officially supported gays being allowed to serve. Don't Ask, Don't Tell created a difficult situation for military psychiatrists and gay service members seeking mental health treatment, and the policy itself had negative mental health effects.