On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Michael Mullen will appear before the Senate Armed Forces Committee to discuss a possible repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.
According to news reports, Gates will announce that the Pentagon will begin a special investigation to see what effect the repeal will have on the “morale and readiness of troops.” During the investigation, the military will reportedly stop moving to discharge servicemembers who are outed by a third party. (The Defense Department would not confirm either of those reports to TPM.)
The joint chiefs are reportedly meeting today behind closed doors to discuss the possible repeal.
President Obama has taken heat from gay rights activists for not doing more in his first year to repeal the policy, which prohibits openly gay men and women from serving in the military.
But the number of discharges under the policy has dropped significantly during his first year. According to numbers reported today by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and confirmed by the DoD, the number of DADT discharges fell by almost 30 percent from 2008 to 2009.
In 2008, 619 service members were discharged. In 2009, that number dropped to 428.
There are almost 66,000 gay service members, about 13,000 of which are active duty, according to a study released this month by UCLA’s Williams Institute.
Obama renewed his call for a repeal in his State of the Union address last week (and Gates stood up to applaud). Obama has also reportedly told Gates and Mullen that repealing DADT is a real priority for 2010.
Why the sudden push? The White House is trying to repeal the policy before legal cases challenging DADT reach the Supreme Court. If the cases do get to the high court, the administration would be forced to defend Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
But not everyone in the Pentagon is so enthusiastic. And the repeal will have to come from Congress, where it’s not clear whether there are the votes for it, especially in an election year.
And the “special investigation” reported by the Associated Press may serve to drag the process out.
According to the AP, Gates said in a speech last year at the Army War College that the 1948 executive order for to integrate the armed forces took five years to implement.
“I’m not saying that’s a model for this, but I’m saying that I believe this is something that needs to be done very, very carefully,” he said.
