538.com: Pentagon Spends $4.4 Million to Test Troops' Gaydar

[racaulk]

Pentagon Spends $4.4 Million to Test Troops' Gaydar
by Nate Silver

A $4.4 million Pentagon survey which asks its troops a series of questions about Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) has come in for a lot of criticism, mostly related to purported bias in the selection and wording of questions. I might weigh in at more length on the bias claims later; my initial position, having read the survey, is somewhat agnostic. But really, I think the bias accusations somewhat miss the forest for the trees. The survey might or might not be biased -- the bigger problem is that entire parts of it are completely useless.

In particular, given that the army that isn't supposed to have any (openly) gay soldiers, the survey asks the troops to engage in an awful lot of speculation about the gay soldiers in their midst. Typical are questions like these:

Do you currently serve with a male or female Service member you believe to be homosexual.

There are several different version of this question -- the respondent is asked about leaders, coworkers, and subordinates whom he deems to be homosexual, and in turn asks what impact these purported homosexuals are having on his unit's performance and morale.

<---snip--->

Thus, this entire portion of the questionnaire is fairly useless: it more measures the relationship between gossip and unit morale than anything having to do with homosexuality per se. Although this might be modestly interesting as a sociological experiment, any conclusions that it purports to come to about the impact of DADT on morale should be ignored.

In contrast, the survey (at least from what we've seen of it so far) goes out of its way to avoid asking the troops about something which is arguably more relevant and which is certainly more measurable: their opinions about DADT. At no point, for instance does it pose the simple question of whether or not the solider thinks that DADT should be repealed. I'd have no huge problem if we asked our troops that; it would be up to our policymakers to weigh those findings against other factors. But the survey does not solicit the soldiers' opinions; instead, it solicits their speculation on the sexual preferences of their peers. In so doing, it insults their intelligence -- and ours.

<---snip--->

Link: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/07/pentagon-spends-44-million-to-test.html

[Ganja Ninja]

1. Why doesn't the Commander in Chief stop this?

What's the point of this? Other peoples homophobia shouldn't be allowed to have any bearing on the rights of gays and lesbians.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. He doesn't understand the issue.

He may be bright... and in some areas he's a genius... but there are entire dimensions of life experience in which he is deficient.

GLBT issues for one . Public education for another.

The trick here is to find people to advise you who DO know what they are talking about in areas where you are deficient.

Obama doesn't seem to do this, it shows and it's embarrassing.

[RKP5637]

2. More wasted money and going in circles... Let's have a survey on the

60's civil rights act, maybe that was wrong. Let's have a survey on congressional pay and benefits (I like that best) or maybe a survey on our perpetual wars and how we want out taxes spent. But no, we have to focus on a minority group.

IMO it's a guise to shelve DADT decisions for awhile...

[sui generis]

4. the "leading" part of the survey is the implied fact that "morale"

undefined in any material way, is the most important thing in the military.

Really, ask a dozen people to define morale (without wiki'ing it) and you will get a dozen different answers.

This survey was absolutely crafted and dishonest, and quite frankly sounds like it was written by 12 year old or equivalent intellectual capacity. And by that I mean a dumb 12 year old.