Pentagon Lawyer: Delay Dropping 'Don't Ask'

Gates, Mullen tell senators the year-long process has begun

(NEWSER) - Rolling back Don't Ask, Don't Tell boils down to a simple matter of "integrity," the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told senators today. Adm. Mike Mullen and defense secretary Robert Gates took to Capitol Hill to provide details on how the Pentagon is beginning a year-long process of repealing the ban on gays in the military. "The question before us is not whether the military prepares to make this change, but how we best prepare for it," said Gates. More»

(NEWSER) - A persuasive essay arguing against the military's ban on gay soldiers is raising hope among activists that a watershed moment is near. It's not so much because of the essay's familiar arguments—that "Don't Ask Don't Tell" hurts morale and violates civil rights—but because of its publication in a widely read Pentagon journal. "We think it is significant—a breakthrough moment," one opponent of the policy tells NPR. More»

Racism, sexism, homophobia still exist: LA Times

(NEWSER) - When Marissa Gaeta stepped off the USS Oak Hill after a three-month deployment and gave her girlfriend the "first kiss" , it was just one example of the "exemplary progress" the US military has made in "modernizing its culture," declares the Los Angeles Times in an editorial. But while the gay homecoming kiss is a "milepost," Danny Chen’s death illustrates the “long road” that remains ahead. Chen, a 19-year-old Chinese-American, appears to have committed suicide after allegedly being taunted and hazed over his ethnicity. More»

Lawsuit to be filed today

(NEWSER) - Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell may be gone, but married gay and lesbian service members aren’t done fighting for equal rights: Six active troops and two veterans are filing suit today to challenge the Defense of Marriage Act. Lead plaintiffs Shannon McLaughlin, a Massachusetts Army National Guard major, and her wife, Casey, were married in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage is legal. But DOMA prevents the federal government from recognizing that marriage, and keeps Casey from being covered under her wife’s health care plan. It also would prohibit Casey from bringing their twins, who are covered, to medical appointments on base, should Shannon be deployed. More»

Fight over half-pay has outlived Don't Ask, Don't Tell

(NEWSER) - "Don't Ask Don't Tell" wasn't cold in its grave before Obama administration lawyers were in court opposing giving full severance pay to service members honorably discharged under the policy. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the case on behalf of 142 people discharged under the policy since 2005, reports the New York Times . Under a policy introduced in 1991, service members discharged for homosexuality received only half the severance pay of those involuntary discharged for other reasons. More»