As the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was reviewed by Congress and the Department of Defense, the Palm Center and the Brookings Institution’s 21st Century Defense Initiative hosted a forum of military officers and experts from nations allied with the US to discuss how other nations have wrestled with similar policy changes in who is allowed to serve in their military. The conference on the “Lessons Learned from the Service of Gays and Lesbians in Allied Militaries” was held at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C on May 19, 2010.
The conference sought to inform the debate over the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” by exploring how exactly their militaries transitioned to policies allowing openly gay service and, based on this experience, what applicable insights they might provide to the United States military. A variety of panels explored key questions and detailed a range of national experiences from ministerial-level perspectives to tactical unit commanders’ experiences.