Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced Tuesday that the Pentagon is now including sexual orientation in its anti-discrimination policy.
Carter made the announcement, which affects the department’s Military Equal Opportunity policy, during the LGBT Pride Month ceremony at the Pentagon.
The rule change ensures “that the department, like the rest of the federal government, treats sexual-orientation-based discrimination the same way it treats discrimination based on race, religion, color, sex, age and national origin,” Carter said. “And I’m very proud of the work that the military services have put into this over the last several months. Because discrimination of any kind has no place in America’s armed forces.”
