Don't Ask Don't Tell
| Synonyms: | DADT | |
| See also: | Issuefic | |
| Click here for articles related to this term on Fanlore. | ||
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If you're looking for the Soldier of Fortune zine, see Don't Ask Don't Tell (Fanzine)
Don't Ask Don't Tell refers to a 1993 U.S. law banning openly lesbian, gay, and bisexual people from serving in the U.S. military. (Prior to the passage of DADT, homosexuality in the U.S. military was banned by regulation -- afterwards, homosexuals could serve as long as they never admitted, or let anyone know, that they were homosexual.)[1]
Sometimes DADT is used as a story tag more generally to cover any sort of working environment, such as Star Trek's Star Fleet, The Professionals' CI-5, or The Sentinel's Cascade police force, where homophobia makes it difficult or impossible to come out and stay employed, or milieus such as popslash/bandom, where coming out could be a publicity nightmare.
When DADT, or similar topics, becomes a major theme for a story or vid, the fanwork may be called issuefic or an issue vid. These terms can be used informatively or perjoratively.
Notable works using DADT as a theme
- The Rack, an early novel-length Star Trek story that attempted to refute K/S. (Verba, pg 44: "In the story, Starfleet Command suspects Kirk and Spock of having an affair, and court-martials them. At the end of the story, Kirk attempts suicide. The authors wrote the story to show what, in their opinion, would "really" happen if Starfleet suspected, even erroneously, that Kirk and Spock were having an affair."[2])
- The Fox and The Wolf trilogy in The Professionals by Jane Carnall -- a Bodie/Cowley series in the 1990s where Cowley is outted, and fired from CI5.
- Scenes from a Lesser War by Amireal (SGA)
- DADT, Damyata, Damyadvam by trinityofone (SGA)
- The Walls of Jericho by icarus (SG-1)
