Pentagon has taken first steps toward repealing "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Defense Secretary Gates says.
It has served it's time and it's time we move on. Yeah America!Laying the groundwork for a repeal of the policy will take more than a year, Gates said. In the interim, however, the Defense Department will start enforcing the policy "in a fairer manner," he told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
President Barack Obama called for a repeal of the policy during last week's State of the Union address.
"The question before us is not whether the military prepares to make this change, but how we best prepare for it," Gates told member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "We have received our orders from the commander in chief and we are moving out accordingly."
But the ultimate decision on whether to repeal the policy, he acknowledged, rests with Congress.
The "don't ask, don't tell" policy, enacted under President Bill Clinton in 1993, bars openly gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals from serving in the U.S. military, but prevents the military from asking a service member's sexual orientation. It has been a political lightning rod since its implementation.
"I am mindful ... that attitudes towards homosexuality may have changed considerably -- both in society generally and in the military" since 1993, Gates said.
To prepare the military for what has been a long-anticipated change, Gates said he has already appointed a "high-level" working group to "immediately begin a review of the issues associated with properly implementing a repeal."
"The mandate of this working group is to thoroughly, objectively and methodically examine all aspects of this question and produce its finding and recommendations in the form of an implementation plan by the end of this calendar year," Gates told the committee members.
![[Powered By MySQL]](/images/mysql-04.gif)
Copyright Notice: All entries are copyright (and the responsibility of) their respective authors.
