DADT: It's Cost Us How Much?

There's been widespread speculation on the gay blogs about whether the President will or will not say something, from a passing reference to a major policy statement, about Don't Ask, Don't Tell in his State of the Union Speech tonight - which btw, begins at 9 p.m. Eastern.

Obviously, nobody has a clue about what he's really going to say on this subject, if anything.  But regardless, here's the latest figures (pdf file) from the UCLA Williams Institute on gays in the military, and what it's costing you and me to keep kicking the queers out:

An estimated 66,000 lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals are serving in the US military, accounting for approximately 2.2% of military personnel.

Lifting DADT restrictions could attract an estimated 36,700 men and women to active duty service along with 12,000 more individuals to the guard and reserve.

Since its inception in 1994, the “Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell” policy has cost the military between $290 million and more than a half a billion dollars.

Your tax dollars at work.

Honk to Liz Newcomb, Americablog Gay.


FYI:  The study linked to above is based on a 2008 estimate of the LGB population in this country:  3.3% of men and 5.2% of women.

Which is different from a 2004 study estimating 4% of men, and 3% of women.  Read the Data and Methodology section of the report for more background on these numbers.

This Wikipedia article explains the difficulties involved in determining reliable figures.  But any way you slice it, though we number in the millions, we're still a very small percentage of the general population.

As Sullivan put it a few weeks back, talking about the kill-the-gays-bill in Uganda:  "What the Jews were to the right in the 1920s, the gays are in the 2010s. Unpleasant, dispensable, and if possible, wiped out."

And for your further information:  Jews as a percentage of the population of the United States, 2006:  2.2%.

Jewish population of Nazi Germany in 1933:  0.75%.