Pentagon report debunks DADT fear-mongering (yet again)

We now have yet more evidence to throw in the faces of all those far-Right homophobes who’ve spent the last year (and longer) going apoplectic over the demise of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” with hysterical claims about the loss of morale and unit cohesion and the enslavement of chaplains and whatnot. Following report after report about the “negligible” effect caused by the repeal, we now have official recruitment statistics from the Department of Defense that blow a crater right through all those myths about the impending homosexualized decline of the U.S.’s armed forces:

All four active services met or exceeded their numerical accession goals for fiscal 2012:

-- Army: 60,490 accessions, for 104 percent of its goal of 58,000;

-- Navy: 36,329 accessions, for 100 percent of its goal of 36,275;

-- Marine Corps: 30,514 accessions, for 100 percent of its goal of 30,500;

-- Air Force: 29,037 accessions, for 100 percent of its goal of 29,037.

The Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force all exhibited strong retention through fiscal 2012.

That’s right: Not only have enlisted soldiers not left in protest of the gay plague, but in addition to recruitment remaining exactly on the mark, there’s even more people joining up than had been expected. We’re really running out of space on that ever-growing list of failed religious-Right predictions.

Of course, they could always just stop making such mindless and easily disproven claims … but then, you know what they say about expecting crazy people to stop doing crazy things.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)