Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was a United States policy instituted during the Clinton administration. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating or harassing closeted homosexuals, while simultaneously barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual people from military service. The policy was put into effect from February 28, 1994 to September 20, 2011. The act specified that service members that disclosed that they are homosexual will be discharged. The “don’t ask” part of the policy required that superiors should not initiate an investigation of a service member’s orientation without witnessing prohibited behavior. At the time, some felt this was a compromise between those that wanted to end the ban on gay people serving and those that felt that having openly gay people serving would “effect combat readiness and unit cohesion.”

When President Barack Obama repealed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in 2011, I was still in the Navy. I remember watching a woman kiss her spouse when she got back from deployment and it being on the front page of NavyTimes. There was joy, but we all held our breath. The fear remained. We didn’t feel safe enough to come out to our chain of command, our shipmates. The victory felt delicate and many of us had committed perjury out of necessity while in hiding, making it impossible to come out now.

17 posters represent the 17 years the policy was enacted. DADT directly lead to the harassment, imprisonment, or even death of many gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans service members. We were told to hold back, tone it down, and keep a part of ourselves locked away. Not anymore. The primary colors speak to a fundamental fact, that we have always been here and we’re not going away. We are done hiding who we are.