Crew's quarters aboard the submarine U.S.S. Cavalla.
"The president has long advocated allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the military, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told reporters in June that he had directed Defense Department lawyers to explore ways to make the policy more flexible until the law is changed."
Previously...
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=54956
General Counsel Looking Into ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ Gates Says
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
ABOARD A MILIARY AIRCRAFT, June 30, 2009 – A day after President Barack Obama reaffirmed his pledge to overturn the so-called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today he has Defense Department lawyers exploring ways to make it more flexible until the law is changed.
The law prohibits officials from inquiring into a servicemember’s sexual orientation in the absence of statements or acts that indicate the servicemember is homosexual, but allows the services to take action against servicemembers who disclose their homosexuality by word or action.
Gates told reporters traveling with him from U.S. European Command that he talked with the president last week about “how to achieve his objective, which is changing the policy.” The issue also came up at last week’s Defense Leadership Council, he said.
“And the issue that we face is, How do we begin to do preparations and, simultaneously, the administration move forward in asking the Congress to change the law?” he said.
“What we have is a law, not a policy or regulation,” Gates said. “And as I discovered when I got into it, it is a very prescriptive law. It doesn’t leave a lot to the imagination or a lot of flexibility. So one of the things we are looking at is, Is there flexibility in how we apply this law?”
Gates cited the example of someone who’s been “outed by a third party,” possibly the result of blackmail or a jilting.
“Does that force us to take an action?” he questioned. “I don’t know the answer to that. I don’t want to pretend to. But that is the kind of thing we are looking at.”
Gates said he believes there’s “at least a more humane way to comply with the law until the law gets changed.”
Exactly what that might be is up to legal interpretation, he said. “We have general counsel working on it,” he added.
Biographies:
Robert M. Gates
Gates is a moron.
Maybe this is why Hillary wasn’t at the speech tonight?
Crew's quarters aboard the submarine U.S.S. Cavalla.
He wants to destroy our military, our economy and everything else that has been good about our country.
It's like my house is burning down and I stop to check the couch cushions for loose change to go buy a bagel. WTF?
The Prez still doesn’t get it.
It has nothing to do “with who they are”.
It has to do with what they do.
Obama is more scared of his base than the American people. This guy will be irrelevant in December.
This stupidity is going to cost us a lot of volunteers. Hopefully they’ll reinstitute the draft and the worthless liberals will all flee to Canada.
Obama Reaffirms Desire to End ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
zer0 could be discussing the birth certificate
Then along came Bill Clinton....and it became optional.
I'm glad I retired before Obama makes it mandatory.