The White House is hoping a new Pentagon report downplaying the impact of ending the ban on gays in the military will clear a path for a legislative repeal of the ban by year’s end. But Republican opposition to repealing the 17-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy makes prospects for repeal uncertain.
“A policy that requires people to lie about themselves, somehow seems to me fundamentally flawed,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday.
The Pentagon survey found 50 percent to 55 percent of active-duty service members believe repealing the ban will have little or no effect on their service.
Thirty percent said ending the ban would have a negative impact, and 15 percent to 20 percent predicted a positive effect.
The 103-question survey, conducted by an outside firm, “confirms that, by every measure — from unit cohesion to recruitment and retention to family readiness — we can transition to a new policy in a responsible manner that ensures our military strength and national security,” President Obama said.
He noted that for the first time, repealing the ban has the support of both the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The issue moves next to Congress, where the House already approved repealing the ban. In the Senate, Republicans led by Sen. John McCain of Arizona are vowing to continue blocking it.
McCain called the Pentagon report flawed, saying it did not ask service members whether “don’t ask, don’t tell” should be repealed, but only how they would implement the repeal.
The 1993 Clinton-era policy allows gay men and lesbians to serve in the military if they don’t disclose their sexual orientation and it isn’t otherwise revealed.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he will seek a vote to repeal the ban in the current lame duck session of Congress.
R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of the pro-repeal Log Cabin Republicans and an Army Reserve officer, said he was not surprised by the survey results, which he called “a shrug of the shoulders.”
“I do see this as a vehicle for repeal,” Cooper said.
But Richard Rosendall, vice president for political affairs at the Washington-area Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, wasn’t so sure.
“Our greatest frustration at this point is not the opponents, it’s with those who know better but are reluctant to act or hesitate and look for excuses not to act,” Rosendall said.
As to the apparent indifference of the troops to serving alongside lesbians and gays, William Leap, chairman of the anthropology department at American University, said it reflects a generational divide and wider cultural acknowledgment and awareness of homosexuality among younger people.
“What people are saying in these statistics are, ‘Give us a break,’ ” Leap said.
The military survey tracks a new Pew Research poll, which found that 58 percent of Americans support allowing gays to serve openly while 27 percent oppose it.
