Epress.am News from Armenia
The law that for almost 18 years has banned openly gay Americans from serving in the armed forces will be officially repealed Tuesday, nine months after Congress voted to end the Clinton-era edict, NPR reports.
US President Barack Obama signed the repeal into law last December, but its provisions required time for the Pentagon to prepare for the policy change, and for top military officials to “certify” the law’s end.
Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and Adm. Mike Mullen, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, signed off on the change in July, and set Tuesday as the end of the law that’s long been known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” or DADT.
Repeal means that for the first time in America’s military history, service members will be allowed to publicly reveal their sexual orientation without fear of reprisal.
Though a national Gallup poll taken after Congress repealed DADT showed that 67 percent of those surveyed supported repeal, resistance to the change still exists, on Capitol Hill and beyond.
Rep. Buck McKeon, the California Republican who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, and committee member Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, sent a letter to the White House last week seeking to delay the repeal. They argued that the committee has not been adequately briefed about the new policy.
Pentagon press secretary George Little on Monday had a different message, however.
“No one should be left with the impression that we are unprepared. We are prepared for repeal,” Little said. “The force is well aware that this is coming. They’ve had the training. It’s been in the press for months. The September 20th day is not a mystery.”