While a growing number of Democrats are pushing to keep the Senate in session longer than planned in order to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” one thing appears clear — the majority of Americans are fine with allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces.
Following a number of November polls that all showed a majority of respondents supporting the repeal of DADT, a newly released Gallup poll finds 67% of respondents in support of “a law that would allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. military.” Only 28% indicated they would oppose such a law.
When Gallup conducted a survey to determine what Americans deemed to be the top priority for Congress to address during its lame-duck session, 32% of respondents expressed that it is “very important” to resolve the issue of gays serving openly in the military before year’s end.
On Monday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Navy sailors that despite the push from him and other Pentagon leaders, the ban on openly gay servicemembers is likely to continue into next year.
The margin of error for the latest survey is ±4.0 percentage points.
