The Politics of Paranoia

For almost 20 years, gay rights advocates and defenders of military anti-gay discrimination engaged in a phony debate about whether allowing open service would undermine unit cohesion. To be sure, a preponderance of evidence showed that open service would not undermine cohesion, and the repeal of don’t ask, don’t tell (DADT) required advocates to prevail on that point in the court of public opinion. But concerns about cohesion were never the basis of oppo-sition to open service. Rather, opposition was a modern incarnation of the politics of paranoia, a dangerous tradition in American his-tory. Acknowledging that DADT had nothing to do with cohesion and that military leaders allowed the armed forces to be implicated in the politics of paranoia could facilitate disabling paranoia as the basis for other political projects such as anti-immigrant xeno-phobia. For a video on DADT and paranoia, search for “Donnelly Belkin DADT ” on YoutTube. KEYWORDS don’t ask, don’t tell, DADT, gays in the military, paranoia This speech was given at the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama on Wednesday, May 26, 2010, where I was an invited guest on a panel discussion on “Gays in the Military. ” I thank Jim Parco for his generous friendship, his incredible work on this project, and his brave and relentless pursuit of equality for those who haven’t achieved it. The full debate is available a