Ever since the Revolutionary War period, sodomy has been considered a crime and in 1778 the military discharged it's first soldier for the act of sodomy. His name was Lieutenant Gotthold Frederick Enslin; he was the first but he would not be the last. At this point a soldier was only discharged for committing sodomy because of it's status as a criminal act, but not for thoughts of sodomy or homosexuality. During World War II psychiatric screening became a way to decipher between those fit for the military and those not fit. By now homosexuality was considered a psychopathology and it was at this time, in 1942, that the military created regulations disallowing homosexuals. There was some incongruence, however, in how this was handled. Some soldiers admitted to homosexual thoughts or tendencies and were allowed to join the military anyway as long as they did not act on their urges. Beginning the 1980's, as the military began to feel threatened by the movement of LGBT civil rights, the Department of Defense created seperation policy number 1332.14 which promised to "promote the readiness of the Military Services by maintaining high standards of performance, conduct, and discipline." It then detailed separation policies meant to weed out persons who did not meet these high standards and in Part 1 Section H it stated, "Homosexuality is incompatible with military service. [The presence of homosexuals] seriously impairs the accomplishment of the military mission. The presence of such members adversely affects the ability of the Military Services to maintain discipline, good order and morale; to foster mutual trust and confidence among servicemembers, to ensure the integrity of the system of rank and command; to facilitate assignment and worlwide deployment of servicemembers who frequently must live and work uder close conditions affording minimal privacy: to recruit and retain members of the Military Services; to maintain the public acceptability of military service; and to prevent breaches of security." At this point homosexuality, acted upon or not, was strictly forbidden in the military.
In December of 1988, Theodore R. Sarbin and Kenneth E. Karols of the Defense Personnel Security Research and Education Center published their findings on homosexuals and the military in their paper "Nonconforming Sexual Orientation In The Military and Society." They discredited the military's statements that homosexuals are incompatible with the military and impair the military mission. They argued that there was growing evidence of a biological cause for homosexuality and that "homosexual men and women as a group are not different from heterosexual men and women in regard to adjustment criteria or job performance." The military completely ignored their findings and buried their research.
Also at this time, there was some disagreement within the courts as to whether or not the military ban on homosexuals was justified. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled 2 to 1 in favor of homosexuals in February 1988. They felt that the military's ban on homosexuals was unconstitutional. In his notes on the case, Judge Norris wrote, "Laws that limit the acceptable focus of one's sexual desires to members of the opposite sex, like laws that limit one's choice of spouse (or sexual partner) to members of the same race, cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny absent a compelling governmental justification." At this time, however, the Supreme Court was ruling in favor of the military and so the military was allowed to continue discharging homosexual soldiers.
After his inauguration, President Clinton tried to eliminate military policies banning homosexuals but he was faced with such opposition that he instead enacted what has come to be known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" or DADT. On December 21, 1993, DOD Directive 1332.14 was revised to say, "Commanders or appointed inquiry officials shall not ask, and members shall not be required to reveal, whether a member is a heterosexual, a homosexual, or a bisexual." It then went on to list appropriate reasons to initiate a search into someone's sexuality and evidence that is allowed to be used against a person as proof of non-heterosexuality. During the years of DADT, treatment of LGBT personnel within the military became worse and involuntary discharge of LGBT personnel increased. In light of this, Democratic opposition to DADT became fierce and there were promises to repeal the policy. Our government, however, was run by conservatives and nothing was done. Even in light of a 2003 poll of US adults which showed that 79 percent approved of LGBT military personnel being allowed to serve openly, nothing was changed.
It was not until December 22, 2010, after much battling in Congress, that President Barack Obama passed legislation allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve in the military. Even then, it was not until September 20, 2011, after the military had implemented new policies and regulations protecting homosexuals and bisexuals and felt that the military personnel had been properly trained for these changes, that DADT and military bans of homosexuals were officially lifted.
Citations:
LGBT Military History - http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/military_history.html
DOD Instruction No. 1332.14 - http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/133214p.pdf
DOD 1332.14; Part 1, Section H (extract) - http://dont.stanford.edu/regulations/regulation41.pdf
Sarbin and Karols "Nonconforming Sexual Orientation in the Military and Society" - http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/Personnel_and_Personnel_Readiness/Personnel/229.pdf
Judge Norris and the courts - http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/11/us/homosexual-ban-in-army-rejected-by-appeals-court.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
Don't Ask, Don't Tell Revision to DOD 1332.14 - http://dont.stanford.edu/casestudy/appendixE.pdf
DADT Repeal - http://www.hrc.org/laws-and-legislation/federal-laws/dont-ask-dont-tell-repeal-act-of-2010?gclid=CP-jy62z77ACFYFo4AodeAkSxQ
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