The Road Through "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

The Road Through “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is a long-term portrait and oral history project examining how U.S. military policy shaped LGBTQ+ service members’ lives.

The Road Through “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is a long-term portrait and oral history project focused on LGBTQ+ military veterans whose service spans from the 1950s through the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and into the years that followed. The project was developed through interviews and photographic sessions conducted over several years, with participants located across the United States.

For decades, U.S. military policy required LGBTQ+ service members to conceal aspects of their identity in order to remain in uniform. Participants often described learning to manage this through restraint, guardedness, and careful self-presentation—habits that did not automatically disappear after repeal.

The project brings together formal portraits and oral histories, presented without direct pairing. This decision was guided by care for participants and a desire to prevent the most vulnerable moments shared during interviews from becoming the primary way viewers understand them. Rather than illustrating testimony, the images offer an adjacent presence, allowing individuals to remain complex and self-possessed.