The Department of Defense “studied” the impact of repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” by performing a much-contested survey of US troops in 2010. While the effort was reportedly intended to gather data and draw conclusions based upon that data, there were accusations at the time its actual purpose was to justify repeal — not assess its impact.

The Washington Post recently revived the DADT debate when it wrote about one of the two co-chairs of the survey, then-DoD General Counsel Jeh Johnson, in an article entitled “Four straight black men who led on gay rights.” The article seemed to allude to the same controversy, saying [emphasis added]

The nine-month effort in 2010 gave Congress the ammunition it needed to repeal the discriminatory 18-year-old “don’t ask don’t tell” law.

Presumably, the role of the DoD General Counsel was to represent the positions of the DoD and assess the impact of repeal, though the paper viewed the effort as “[leading] on gay rights” and gathering “ammunition” for repeal.

The Forum on the Military Chaplaincy — an advocacy group that worked for DADT repeal and largely focuses on homosexual issues in the military — recently revealed that then-DoD General Counsel Johnson seemed predisposed to repeal:

During a meeting with three of our Forum members during the Pentagon study in 2010, Jeh Johnson told them how shocked he was that the then Chiefs of Military Chaplains for the Army, Air Force and Navy didn’t get it when it came to equality as it related to LGB service members.

The meeting and “shocked” declaration occurred “during the Pentagon study.”  Interestingly, the fact the study revealed the Chief Chaplains of all three services had issues with repeal is not common knowledge today.

The Air Force recently highlighted the fact then-General Counsel Johnson is now Secretary of Homeland Security.

“The Forum,” led by former Marine pilot Tom Carpenter and former Army Chaplain (Col) Paul Dodd, has also fought religious liberty provisions in the recent NDAAs.

The Forum is “committed to free and diverse religious expression,” except when they don’t agree with the religious expression.

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