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Gay News: A Pentagon study has said that gays should be allowed to serve openly in the US military.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates
Pentagon: Scrap "don't ask, don't tell"
1 December 2010
The study, which was published today, but was partly leaked in October, found that allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the US military would have only a minimal effect on fighting efficiency.
Under the terms of the current “don’t ask, don’t tell” legislation, gay men and women are allowed to serve in the US military but only if they keep their sexuality a secret.
In the survey, which was completed by 115,000 servicemen and women, and by 44,200 military spouses, 70% said that the presence of openly gay troops would have a positive, mixed, or no effect on the military’s efficiency.
Seven out of ten said that they believed they had served alongside someone who was gay, with only 8% saying the presence of a gay colleague had had a negative impact.
The majority of those who opposed the repeal of the ban on openly gay men and women serving in the forces came from the army and the marines.
One of the respondents in the study, a member of the special operations force, was quoted as saying: “We have a gay guy. He’s big, he’s mean, and he kills lots of bad guys. No-one cared that he was gay.”
President Barack Obama welcomed the Pentagon’s findings and said: “Today’s report confirms that a strong majority of our military men and women and their families – more than two-thirds – are prepared to serve alongside Americans who are openly gay and lesbian.”
At a press conference at the Pentagon, Defence Secretary Robert Gates told reporters: “I strongly urge the Senate to pass this legislation and send it to the President for signature before the end of this year.”
He went on to say that careful preparation and education was needed to minimise any potential risk to military effectiveness.
“The level of risk is tied intimately to the quality of preparation,” he said.
“If we have plenty of time to prepare the force, to prepare the leadership... the more effectively we do that preparation, the lower the risk.”
He also said that the current ban on openly gay servicemen and women, effectively encouraged people to lie.
“We spend a lot of time in the military talking about integrity and honour and values,” he said. “Telling the truth is a pretty important value in that scale.”
