The Pentagon will Certify on Friday - No More Don't Ask-Don't tell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon will announce on Friday that the military is ready to repeal the ban on gays serving openly in the armed forces, the last major hurdle to formally ending the policy, U.S. officials said on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

President Barack Obama last year signed a landmark law to allow for the repeal of the nearly 18-year-old "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that forced gays to keep their sexual orientation secret in order to serve in the military.

But Pentagon leaders first needed to certify that military readiness would not suffer as a result -- something that will now be done by new U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Admiral Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military officer, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Once the Pentagon has signed off, Obama can certify the repeal -- fulfilling a 2008 campaign promise to end a policy that saw more than 13,000 men and women expelled from the military because of their sexual orientation.

There is then a 60-day waiting period before the law is finally scrapped.

Ending the policy, enacted under then-President Bill Clinton in 1993, has been a top priority of gay rights activists, along with advancing same-sex marriage rights.

Critics of repeal within the Pentagon had long argued it was too risky to pursue the change at a time when the military was stretched by the wars in Iraq in Afghanistan.

But a Pentagon study unveiled last year predicted that scrapping the policy would have little impact, and repeal won support from Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, and then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

U.S. courts also intervened, with a California district court judge last year finding that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy violated the U.S. constitution.

The Obama administration managed to keep the policy partly in effect through court appeals in order to give the Defense Department time to prepare for repeal. Last week, a federal appeals court blocked the Pentagon from investigating or discharging anyone under the policy.

Story Copyright 2011, Reuters Photo Copyright 2011, Getty Images

The Administration & The Courts Fight Over Who Can End DADT First

 by Lile Denniston  http://www.scotusblog.com/

Scolding the Obama Administration for skimping on the information it gave judges about its plans to end the “don’t ask/don’t tell” policy, the Ninth Circuit Court temporarily reinstates that policy, in part. That will give it time to consider the next step.

The Ninth Circuit Court on Friday evening put back into effect temporarily the U.S. military’s ban on gays and lesbians from serving openly in the services, but also barred any investigations, penalties or discharges of anyone to carry out that policy.  In a three-page order, the three-judge panel said it was giving itself time to consider the Obama Administration’s strong new challenge to the courts’ authority to decide when to end the policy.  (The Administration’s new challenge, and the Log Cabin Republicans’ reply to it, are discussed in the updated post, below.)

While giving the Administration at least a temporary and largely symbolic victory, the panel also showed some displeasure with the Administration for skimping on the information it had shared with the Circuit Court about how the Pentagon is implementing a new federal law that is to repeal the 18-year-old ban, perhaps by this fall.  The judges ordered the government to file by 5 p.m. Monday an explanation “why they did not present [earlier]…the detailed information” submitted on Thursday.  The panel was referring to a filing by the government on May 20 opposing any order to stop enforcement of the ban.

The panel hinted that it would rule promptly on the Administration’s broad new challenge to the role of the judiciary in determining the timing of the policy’s final end.   It told the Log Cabin Republicans, the advocacy group that persuaded a federal judge to strike down the ban, to file by next Thursday any opposition it has to the government request, with the government allowed a reply by next Friday.   A ruling presumably would come shortly after those filings are in.  That would be at least a week after the Administration had asked for a decision on its challenge; it wanted a ruling by the close of business today (Friday).

This maneuvering does not involve directly the Circuit Court panel’s review of the constitutionality of the 1993 law that has led to thousands of discharges of gays and lesbians from the military services.  That question has been fully briefed, and the panel is to hold a hearing on it in the week of Aug. 29.  Under the present timetable for actual repeal of the ban, it may not occur until October or November.

In putting the policy ban into effect for the time being, the Circuit Court judges explicitly told the Pentagon that it may not carry out any investigation, punishment, or discharge of “anyone from the military pursuant to” the policy.  Thus, what remains in effect is the basic law’s policy declaration that gays and lesbians may not remain in the service if they have revealed their homosexuality or were found to be homosexual.   It appeared that part of the reason the panel was prepared to order a stop to those means of implementing the law was the revelation by the Pentagon Thursday that only one homosexual has been discharged from the service under the policy since Congress passed the repeal of “don’t ask/don’t tell” last December.

ON Duty Troops to March in Gay Pride Parade

HOWARD LIPIN

Sean Sala, who served in the Navy, is the organizer of what is believed to be the first active-duty military contingent to march in a gay pride parade.San Diego event will be the first in the nation, organizers say

BY JEANETTE STEELE, SR. REPORTER - MILITARY

 As the U.S. military inches toward the end of its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, hundreds of service members — both gay and straight — plan to march as a group in San Diego’s gay Pride Parade on Saturday.

It’s the first time the parade has included an active-duty military contingent, organizers say. They also think it’s a first for any gay pride parade in the nation.

The idea came from Hillcrest resident Sean Sala, a 26-year-old former sailor fresh from the ranks. He served as a Navy operations specialist from 2005 to 2011, discharged June 30.

“I’m getting emails from veterans and active-duty officers and enlisted from all over the nation. There are people flying in literally from the four corners of the nation to participate in this,” Sala said.

“It’s turned from a very small idea to, now, a national movement.”

  

About 350 people have signed up for the military-themed parade entry. About 70 percent are active-duty servicemembers and the majority are gay, Sala estimated.

They will not march in uniform, which — especially under “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which banned openly gay service — could be a career-ending move. Instead, they will wear T-shirts emblazoned with Army, Navy, Air Force or Marines.

One active-duty San Diego Marine who will be marching — a veteran of two Iraq tours — said he wouldn’t have made himself so conspicuous before.

The momentum building toward repeal over the past year has made him bolder.

“It’s a great way to say, at least to San Diego, we are proud of who we are and proud of serving our country,” said the Marine, though he spoke on the condition that only his last name, Silva, would be published for fear of damaging his six-year military career.

Sala, the former sailor, said he doesn’t want to make a political statement, just to honor America’s troops — something he thought was missing from the annual gay pride parade, considered the fifth largest in the country.

The reactions to his idea in the gay community have been mixed, he said. Some people told him what he’s doing is dangerous, because “don’t ask, don’t tell” has not yet officially died.

According to Sala, one gay active-duty officer told him: I’m not as brave as you are.

Until recently, the danger of serving as an openly gay sailor was very real for Sala.

Swept up in the emotion of last year’s political debate over ending the military’s gay ban, the then-petty officer decided to reveal his sexuality during an interview with a San Diego television station.

He was lucky. His Navy commanders chose not to punish him.

The official policy on openly gay service has changed almost from month to month in the past year.

In October, a federal judge in Riverside struck down the 17-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy as unconstitutional. Days later, a higher court stayed that decision when the U.S. Justice Department appealed. Then, after a tough political battle, Congress in December passed a repeal in a lame-duck session.

But the change didn’t immediately apply. The military has spent months briefing troops about the coming policy shift. The law demands that the defense secretary and the president certify that repeal will not harm military readiness.

Last week, a federal appeals court lifted its stay of the Riverside judge’s decision. The Pentagon said it would tell its commands to honor the court ruling and stop enforcing “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

On Thursday afternoon, it looked as though the Justice Department would appeal, again.

And, the Pentagon this week confirmed that the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines submitted their recommendations on the readiness of the forces for repeal. Action by new Defense Secretary Leon Panetta could come any day.

With that topsy-turvy history, the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group Servicemembers Legal Defense Network continues to advise gays now serving in uniform to keep their sexual orientation private.

That group’s director, Army veteran Aubrey Sarvis, said the San Diego contingent’s parade plans give him “some concerns.”

However, he added, “having said that, they are not in uniform, they are not speaking, no one knows who is gay or who’s straight. I think the risks are minimal for the service members.”

Sarvis said there’s impatience in the gay community to cheer its victory in the long-fought battle against the military’s gay ban.

“There is an eagerness to celebrate, and there’s years of pent-up frustration,” he said. “So what they want to do is very understandable.”

Still, organizers of the San Diego military contingent say their parade entry will be focused on paying tribute to those in uniform.

They plan to present two riderless horses, one draped in the American flag and the other covered in a rainbow flag.

There will be a banner reading “Honoring Service Members.”

jen.steele@uniontrib.com; (619) 293-1030; Twitter: @jensteeley