Washington:
The nation's top two defense officials called Tuesday for an end to the 16-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" law, a major step toward allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the U.S. military for the first time.
"No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens," Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. As a murmur swept through a hearing room packed with gay rights leaders, Mullen said it was his personal belief that "allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do."
He is the first sitting chairman of the Joint Chiefs to support a repeal of the policy, and his forceful expression of his views seemed to catch not only gay rights leaders but Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is the committee's chairman, by surprise. Levin, who has long supported ending the law, told Mullen that his testimony was "eloquent" and praised him for leading on the issue.
In 1993, Gen. Colin L. Powell, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs at the time, opposed allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly but supported "don't ask, don't tell" as the compromise was passed by Congress. Under the policy, gay men and lesbians may serve as long as they keep their sexual orientation secret.
In contrast to Mullen, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was more cautious, even as he acknowledged that the question was not whether the law would be repealed but how the Pentagon might best prepare for the change. Early in his testimony Gates made clear that he was acting at the behest of President Barack Obama, who reaffirmed his opposition to the existing law in his State of the Union address last week. Gates then threw the final decision back to the legislative branch.
"We have received our orders from the commander in chief and we are moving out accordingly," Gates told the committee. "However, we can also take this process only so far, as the ultimate decision rests with you, the Congress."
Any change in the policy would not come any time soon, the two officials made clear. Both Mullen and Gates told the committee that there would be a Pentagon review, taking up to a year, to study how to implement any change before they expected Congress to act on a repeal.
Passage of repeal is far from assured, judging from the negative reaction from some Republicans on the committee, most notably Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who pronounced himself "deeply disappointed" in Gates. McCain said Gates' testimony was "clearly biased" because of the defense secretary's not-if-but-when comments. He added that while the law was not perfect, repeal was too much to ask of a military already under stress fighting two wars.
Gay rights leaders pointed soon afterward to comments McCain made in 2006 on MSNBC's "Hardball" about his willingness to change the policy if top Pentagon leaders called for repeal. "The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, 'Senator, we ought to change the policy,' then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it,"' McCain said then.
To explain the apparent discrepancy, Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for McCain, said that the senator thought that Mullen was speaking personally, not on behalf of the Joint Chiefs, and that once a Pentagon review was complete, McCain would listen to military leaders as a whole.
To lead the review, Gates appointed a civilian and a military officer: Jeh C. Johnson, the Pentagon's top legal counsel, and Gen. Carter F. Ham, the commander of the U.S. Army in Europe. In the interim, Gates announced that the military was moving toward enforcing the existing policy "in a fairer manner" - a reference to the possibility that the Pentagon would no longer take action to discharge service members whose sexual orientation is revealed by third parties or jilted partners, one of the most onerous aspects of the law. Gates said he had asked the Pentagon to make a recommendation on the matter within 45 days, but "we believe that we have a degree of latitude within the existing law to change our internal procedures in a manner that is more appropriate and fair to our men and women in uniform."
Levin said he was considering introducing an amendment to this year's defense authorization bill that would call for a moratorium on discharges under the existing law.
Gates said that the review would examine changes that might have to be made to Pentagon policies on benefits, base housing, fraternization and misconduct and that it would also study the potential effect on unit cohesion, recruiting and retention.
For further information, Gates said he would ask the RAND Corp. to update a 1993 study on the effect of allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly. That study concluded that gay service members could serve openly if the policy was given strong support from the military's senior leaders.
On one thing, Gates, Mullen and Republicans on the committee agreed: Many gay men and lesbians are serving honorably and effectively in the military today, despite a policy that has led to more than 13,000 discharges, including of much-needed Arabic translators.
"I have served with homosexuals since 1968," Mullen told the committee. He added, "Everybody in the military has, and we understand that."
Gay rights groups embraced the comments from Mullen and Gates, even as they criticized the review as moving too slowly.
Polls now show that a majority of Americans support openly gay service - a majority did not in 1993 - but there have been no recent broad surveys of the 1.4 million active-duty personnel.
A 2008 census by Military Times of predominantly Republican and largely older subscribers found that 58 percent were opposed to efforts to repeal the policy; in 2006, a poll by Zogby International of 545 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans found that three-quarters were comfortable around gay service members.
"No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens," Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. As a murmur swept through a hearing room packed with gay rights leaders, Mullen said it was his personal belief that "allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do."
He is the first sitting chairman of the Joint Chiefs to support a repeal of the policy, and his forceful expression of his views seemed to catch not only gay rights leaders but Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is the committee's chairman, by surprise. Levin, who has long supported ending the law, told Mullen that his testimony was "eloquent" and praised him for leading on the issue.
In 1993, Gen. Colin L. Powell, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs at the time, opposed allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly but supported "don't ask, don't tell" as the compromise was passed by Congress. Under the policy, gay men and lesbians may serve as long as they keep their sexual orientation secret.
In contrast to Mullen, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was more cautious, even as he acknowledged that the question was not whether the law would be repealed but how the Pentagon might best prepare for the change. Early in his testimony Gates made clear that he was acting at the behest of President Barack Obama, who reaffirmed his opposition to the existing law in his State of the Union address last week. Gates then threw the final decision back to the legislative branch.
"We have received our orders from the commander in chief and we are moving out accordingly," Gates told the committee. "However, we can also take this process only so far, as the ultimate decision rests with you, the Congress."
Any change in the policy would not come any time soon, the two officials made clear. Both Mullen and Gates told the committee that there would be a Pentagon review, taking up to a year, to study how to implement any change before they expected Congress to act on a repeal.
Passage of repeal is far from assured, judging from the negative reaction from some Republicans on the committee, most notably Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who pronounced himself "deeply disappointed" in Gates. McCain said Gates' testimony was "clearly biased" because of the defense secretary's not-if-but-when comments. He added that while the law was not perfect, repeal was too much to ask of a military already under stress fighting two wars.
Gay rights leaders pointed soon afterward to comments McCain made in 2006 on MSNBC's "Hardball" about his willingness to change the policy if top Pentagon leaders called for repeal. "The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, 'Senator, we ought to change the policy,' then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it,"' McCain said then.
To explain the apparent discrepancy, Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for McCain, said that the senator thought that Mullen was speaking personally, not on behalf of the Joint Chiefs, and that once a Pentagon review was complete, McCain would listen to military leaders as a whole.
To lead the review, Gates appointed a civilian and a military officer: Jeh C. Johnson, the Pentagon's top legal counsel, and Gen. Carter F. Ham, the commander of the U.S. Army in Europe. In the interim, Gates announced that the military was moving toward enforcing the existing policy "in a fairer manner" - a reference to the possibility that the Pentagon would no longer take action to discharge service members whose sexual orientation is revealed by third parties or jilted partners, one of the most onerous aspects of the law. Gates said he had asked the Pentagon to make a recommendation on the matter within 45 days, but "we believe that we have a degree of latitude within the existing law to change our internal procedures in a manner that is more appropriate and fair to our men and women in uniform."
Levin said he was considering introducing an amendment to this year's defense authorization bill that would call for a moratorium on discharges under the existing law.
Gates said that the review would examine changes that might have to be made to Pentagon policies on benefits, base housing, fraternization and misconduct and that it would also study the potential effect on unit cohesion, recruiting and retention.
For further information, Gates said he would ask the RAND Corp. to update a 1993 study on the effect of allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly. That study concluded that gay service members could serve openly if the policy was given strong support from the military's senior leaders.
On one thing, Gates, Mullen and Republicans on the committee agreed: Many gay men and lesbians are serving honorably and effectively in the military today, despite a policy that has led to more than 13,000 discharges, including of much-needed Arabic translators.
"I have served with homosexuals since 1968," Mullen told the committee. He added, "Everybody in the military has, and we understand that."
Gay rights groups embraced the comments from Mullen and Gates, even as they criticized the review as moving too slowly.
Polls now show that a majority of Americans support openly gay service - a majority did not in 1993 - but there have been no recent broad surveys of the 1.4 million active-duty personnel.
A 2008 census by Military Times of predominantly Republican and largely older subscribers found that 58 percent were opposed to efforts to repeal the policy; in 2006, a poll by Zogby International of 545 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans found that three-quarters were comfortable around gay service members.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
