Military's sexual preference policy costly

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- A University of California report claims that the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on sexual preference has cost the Pentagon some $364 million.

The report, released Tuesday, said that figure is about twice what the Government Accountability Office had predicted, although the agency had said it was hard to give an accurate estimate, The Washington Post reported.

Between 1994 and 2003, a total of 9,501 gay or lesbian military personnel have left the service through "don't ask, don't tell," the report said.

The added costs of $364 million came through recruiting and training personnel to replace those discharged.

Retired Rear Adm. John Hutson, a member of the panel that wrote the report, told the Post: "The policy is more expensive than we thought it was in many ways. The real cost is the cost in human dignity."

The "don't ask, don't tell" policy was instituted during the Clinton administration. Under the program, military officials were not to ask about sexual preferences and personnel did not have to disclose they were homosexual. If they did, however, they would be discharged.