The nation’s top two defense officials called Tuesday for an end to the 16-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, a major step toward allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the U.S. military for the first time. “No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens,” Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said it was his personal belief that “allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do.”

Mullen is the first sitting Joint Chiefs chairman to support a repeal of the policy, and the forceful expression of his views seemed to catch not only gay-rights leaders but Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is the committee’s chairman, by surprise. Levin, a longtime proponent of ending the law, told Mullen his testimony was “eloquent.”

In 1993, Gen. Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs, opposed allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly but supported “don’t ask, don’t tell” as the compromise was passed by Congress. Under the policy, officers aren’t supposed to inquire about sexual orientation or seek to know it, while service members are to keep quiet about it.

Full Story from the Seattle Times
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