Chair of Joint Chiefs says Gays should be allowed to serve in military.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35197645/ns/us_news-military

Top military officer: Gays should serve
Admiral Mullen says he is deeply troubled by ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy

NBC News and news services
updated less than 1 minute ago
WASHINGTON - The military's top uniformed officer declared Tuesday that gays should be allowed to serve openly in uniform, arguing that it is "the right thing to do."

It was the strongest statement yet from the Pentagon on this volatile issue.

Adm. Mike Mullen told the Senate Armed Services Committee he is deeply troubled by a policy that forces people to "lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens."
Mullen said he knows many will disagree about abandoning the "don't ask, don't tell" policy and said there are practical obstacles to lifting the 1993 ban. But he said he thinks the military can handle it. Mullen is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and chief military adviser to President Barack Obama.

Before Mullen's statement, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he is tapping his chief legal adviser and a four-star Army general to lead a landmark study on how the military would lift its ban on openly gay service members.

Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson and Gen. Carter Ham, who leads Army forces in Europe, will conduct the yearlong assessment.

Gates' announcement marks a measured step toward Obama's goal of eliminating the military's policy against gays, which is based on a 1993 law. Ham is a former enlisted infantryman who rose to command troops in northern Iraq. Johnson played an integral role in the effort to close the military prison in Guantanamo Bay.

The yearlong study could pave the way for the biggest social change to the military since the 1948 executive order for the racial integration of units.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said at the hearing that he opposed any changes to the existing policy, declaring that the military has "been working well" without openly-gay service.

"'Don't ask, don't tell' has been an imperfect but effective policy," said McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee. "And at this moment, when we are asking more of our military than at any time in recent memory, we should not repeal this law."

His remarks were in direct contrast to Mullen.

A more lenient standard
Gates and Mullen are to outline a more lenient standard for enforcing the current ban while the yearlong study is completed. The interim policy would make it harder for a third party to turn in a gay service member and would raise the standard for evidence that the service member is gay before the person could be dismissed.

Under the 1993 law, engaging in homosexual conduct — even you don't tell anyone — can been enough to qualify a person for dismissal.

The law was intended as a compromise between then-President Bill Clinton, who wanted to lift the military's ban on gays entirely, and a reluctant Congress and military that said doing so would threaten order.

According to figures released Monday, the Defense Department last year dismissed the fewest number of service members for violating its the policy than it had in more than a decade. Overall, more than 10,900 troops have been fired under the policy. The 2009 figure — 428 — was dramatically lower than the 2008 total of 619.

End of a dream
David Hall, a former Air Force sergeant, said he was discharged in 2002 after someone else reported that he was gay.

"That ended it," said Hall, who now works for a gay rights advocacy group. "Just like that, based off what one person said, ended my dream of getting to fly planes."


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In addition to addressing the military's policy on gays, Gates and Mullen planned to outline the military's $768 billion budget for 2011 and another $33 billion requested in war spending this year.

Both Gates and Mullen were expected to underscore the importance of succeeding in Afghanistan, where Obama has ordered 30,000 more troops.

"Our future security is greatly imperiled if we do not win the wars we are in," Mullen said in prepared remarks.

Further, he added, "the outcome of today's conflicts will shape the global security environment for decades to come."

 

I'm not aware of many Republicans wanting don't ask don't tell repealed. They are only reprimanding Obama just to take political potshots, like criticizing that health care hasn't been passed, but I think the vast majority of Republicans want the current policy to remain in place and only replaced with something stricter.