DADT Poll Biased

"Don't ask, don't tell" critics are condemning a new Military Times-sponsored poll that could provide ammunition to antigay forces -- however flawed the resulting data may be.

The new survey asks respondents whether they've been subject to sexual advances by gay soldiers, followed by questions about DADT. The poll is not based on a random sample, but instead solicits responses from Military Times readers.

Of the methodology, Aaron Belkin, a political science professor and researcher with the University of California, Santa Barbara's Palm Center, said in a statement that "if you set up a scenario about sexual predation and then ask someone how they feel about gays in the military, you can predict the response is not going to be positive."

The Palm Center's response to the Military Times survey can be found here.