75% of Americans Oppose Don't Ask, Don't Tell

The American public overwhelmingly supports allowing gay people to serve openly in the military, which wasn’t the case when “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was introduced in 1993. In a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, three out of four respondents supported allowing openly gay service members. That’s about equal to last year’s results, and way up from the 44% who supported that position in 1993.

Support for gay troops was somewhat split, with Democrats more supportive than Republicans, women more supportive than men, and the young more supportive than the old, but solid majorities of all demographics favored lifting the ban. Another major dividing factor was whether the respondents knew a gay person: Among those who did, 81% supported lifting the ban; among those who didn’t, only 66% did. (More Don't Ask, Don't Tell stories.)