Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, September 20th, 2011, President Obama makes a proclamation that begins, quote,

today the discriminatory law known as

of don't tell is finally and formally repealed. As of today, patriotic Americans in uniform

will no longer have to lie about who they are

in order to serve the country they love.

Don't Ask Don't Tell was, as you perhaps know, the policy that was put in place during the

Clinton administration in the early mid 90s to try and find an uneasy compromise to the question of openly gay military

members.

It was a quintessentially 90s debate and a quintessentially Bill Clinton compromise, but it lasted

for almost two decades until this moment, fairly recently, when it was

repealed by the Obama administration.

So here to discuss Obama finally making it legal for gay Americans to be themselves and serve their country.

And I think some interesting questions about the push and poll between policy and cultural change

and which one reflects the other.

Here to discuss that as always are

Nicole Hammer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.

Hello there.

Hello Jody.

Hey there.

So I guess we do have to go back to the early 90s talk about the rise of Don't

...