Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said today that if the votes are there, he’ll include a repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in this year’s Defense Authorization bill — despite a warning from Defense Secretary Robert Gates not to.
Gay rights advocates want Levin and other Democrats to include repeal in the authorization bill, which will go through committee markup later this month. They say it’s the only way to get repeal this year.
Gates, however, has told Congress that he would “strongly oppose” legislating repeal before a Department of Defense review is finished in December.
That won’t stop Levin, who said today that he’ll put repeal in the authorization bill anyway, if he can get the votes for it. He said he’s not sure if the votes are there.
Even so, he said repeal wouldn’t go into effect until after the review is finished.
“What we ought to do is repeal it but make the effective date after the report,” Levin said today, according to Roll Call (sub. req.).
The review, Gates told Levin last week, is not studying whether to repeal the policy, but how.
DADT prohibits gay servicemen and women from disclosing their sexuality.
Levin’s comments come the same day that the Human Rights Campaign, a gay advocacy group, has organized “hundreds” of veterans to visit Capitol Hill and urge for a repeal of DADT.
