Still, the whispered message from Clinton and Gore seemed to be that this was only a temporary stopgap while the nervous military took a large deep breath: Trust us, they seemed to imply.
Gay people were only acceptable, in effect, to the degree to which they could successfully masquerade as nongay. This was presented as a kind of victory for the forces of progress-you were no longer excluded from serving-but it could instead be seen as solidifying discrimination. The consequence, the following year, was a messy kind of compromise that became colloquially known as 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.' Gay people were allowed in the military but only as long as they didn’t reveal their sexuality to facilitate this, all members of the military were also prohibited from inquiring about anyone’s possible orientation. 'I remember being in the Castro,' says John Forrett (army reserve, 1987–99), 'and watching the TV at a bar with some friends, watching Al Gore and Bill Clinton swearing that if they became the tag team for America they were going to get rid of the harassment of gays and lesbians serving in the military.' But when the tag team prevailed, they underestimated the resistance to such a reform from a coalition of social conservatives, religious groups, and a large part of the military itself. How we got here: In 1992, many people thought that the discrimination was nearly over.
