It didn't stop gays from joining the military, it just stopped them from being openly gay in the military. And if you don't join because you cant run around telling everyone how fabulous you are, you don't belong in the military anyway. So now when someone does act openly gay, all that's going to happen is that it'll be awkward for everyone else, and they'll probably end up semi-isolated, which is not good. Yeah, but that's not what was happening. People would get discharged for simply stating their sexuality, not "running around being fabulous." The fact that they would get removed for saying that is discrimination. Running around being obnoxious is a problem that both gay and straight people have, and should not be "fixed" with creating Don't Ask Don't Tell. If you're good enough friends with someone they probably wouldn't tell anyone you were gay anyway. You'd get discharged because then everyone knew you were gay, defeating the purpose. Gay people make many people, and so it would disrupt unit cohesion. What's more important? The unit functioning together, succeeding, and staying alive, or someone's "right" to let people know their sexuality. That's my problem with it. Your need to tell people you're gay should not be more important than my life or that of my shipmates. Not to mention how much it was probably ignored. There was a guy in my boot camp division who was obviously gay, people avoided him, but no one ran to the chain of command to get him kicked out. It's mostly because people are still uncomfortable around gay people. I support it being removed because it's a major problem that has to be tackled. Yes, it will take time for people to get used to it, but after generations of soldiers, it can only become a norm. Obviously not everyone will be gay, but it will become something that isn't really important.