Washington Post, Posted: 1/27/2010, 1:15 AM
An estimated 66,000 gay, lesbian and bisexual people are serving in the U.S. military, roughly 2 percent of all military personnel, according to a report released Tuesday by a gay rights policy center. The figures suggest a slight increase in the number of gays, lesbians and bisexuals in the military, and they provide opponents of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy with fresh data as they lobby the Obama administration for its repeal. Gays, lesbians and bisexuals account for about 13,000 active duty service members, equal to less than 1 percent currently deployed, the report estimated. About 53,000 others serve in the National Guard and reserves, equaling about 3.4 percent. The actual number of gays, lesbians and bisexuals serving in uniform is unknown; the military does not track such figures. The research brief was released by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, a public policy institute that studies sexual orientation law.

New York Times, Posted: 1/26/2010, 11:55 AM
The Obama administration has asked the Senate Armed Services Committee to delay hearings on the fate of the military’s controversial “con’t ask, don’t tell” policy, because the president expects to discuss it in Wednesday’s address to Congress, the committee chairman said today. Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat and chairman of the committee, told reporters that senior Pentagon officials asked him to postpone the hearings, because they do not want to be put in the position of discussing or defending a policy that the White House might abandon. President Obama campaigned on a promise to press Congress to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell,’’ the Clinton-era law that bars gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. But the plan met with resistance inside the Pentagon, where senior military leaders have been engaged in discussions about whether and how to roll it back. Gay rights advocates have been prodding Mr. Obama to live up to his pledge, and have been eagerly awaiting the Armed Services hearings.

Posted: 7/6/2009, 10:32 AM
A sailor found dead earlier this week at California's Camp Pendleton was shot while standing sentry, and a fire was set in an attempt to cover up evidence, the U.S. Navy said. The death of Seaman August Provost of Houston, Texas, is being investigated as a homicide, Capt. Matt Brown told reporters on Thursday. A sailor is in custody in the case, Brown said. Although at least one of Provost's relatives said she believes he was killed because of his sexual orientation and his race, Brown said there was no indication the killing was a hate crime. A U.S. congressman also said on Friday there are indications Provost may have been killed because of his sexual orientation. Provost's aunt, Rose Roy, of Beaumont, Texas, said by telephone on Friday that her nephew had told her he was being harassed because of his sexual orientation and because he was African-American. She described him as bisexual.

Congressional Quarterly, Posted: 7/5/2009, 6:38 PM
President Obama may be changing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy addressing gays in the military but the process will be “measured” and deliberate, the nation’s top military officer said Sunday. “I’ve conversations with him about that,” said Adm. Mike Mullen , chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “What I’ve discussed in terms of the future is I think we need to move in a measured way.” Mullen, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said the current process of carrying out the policy includes making sure “that we’re executing it in the most humane way possible. It’s very clear what president Obama’s intent here is. He intends to see this law change. “We’re at a time where we are fighting two conflicts,” he added. “There’s a great deal of pressure on our forces and their families. And yet, again, the strategic intent is clear.”

Associated Press (AP), Posted: 6/8/2009, 5:15 PM
The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down a challenge to the Defense Department policy forbidding gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, granting a request by the Obama administration. The court said Monday that it will not hear an appeal from former Army Capt. James Pietrangelo II, who was dismissed under the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The federal appeals court in Boston earlier threw out a lawsuit filed by Pietrangelo and 11 other veterans. He was the only member of that group who asked the high court to rule that the Clinton-era policy is unconstitutional. In court papers, the administration said the appeals court ruled correctly in this case when it found that "don't ask, don't tell" is "rationally related to the government's legitimate interest in military discipline and cohesion."

The Advocate, Posted: 6/2/2009, 7:59 PM
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that President Barack Obama's nominee for secretary of the Army, Republican representative John McHugh, agrees with the president that "don't ask, don't tell" should be changed. "I think it's obvious from those statements and other statements that Congressman McHugh has made that he and the president are in agreement on changing the policy they both don't think is working for this country right now," Gibbs said in response to a question from The Advocate about the congressman's past remarks. "It's a priority of the president's and I think, for any number of reasons, we have a nominee that we hope will be confirmed quickly and will have -- ah, based on his background and experience -- will help to improve the lives of the Army." McHugh is the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee. During last summer's hearings on the military's gay ban, McHugh expressed a desire to see a review of the policy and frustration that the Department of Defense and military leadership had not been more open to addressing the issue.

New York Times, Posted: 4/17/2009, 8:36 AM
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates made clear on Thursday that any repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law would have to be undertaken slowly, and suggested that it might not happen at all. “If we do it,’’ Mr. Gates told reporters on his plane enroute to Rhode Island, “it’s important that we do it right, and very carefully.’’ Mr. Gates was expanding on his answer to an officer’s question earlier in the day at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., where the Defense secretary was asked about the policy that allows gay men and lesbians to serve in the military as long as they keep their sexual orientation secret. “Everybody in this room knows that this is a complex and difficult problem,’’ Mr. Gates responded. Then he noted that President Harry S. Truman had signed an executive order integrating the armed services in 1948 “and that it was five years before the process was completed.’’

Stars and Stripes, Posted: 3/16/2009, 3:45 PM
Takia Mitchell said she served openly as a lesbian for two years in South Korea without ever hearing a complaint from her commanders. After less than a year of serving secretly in New York, her new commanders forced her out of the Army under the don’t ask, don’t tell rules. "The Army was my life," she said. "It gave me purpose. And at first it gave me a place to thrive. But by the end I was truly an Army of one, singled out because I was gay." Mitchell was one of a dozen speakers at Friday’s rally in support of legislation which would drop regulations barring homosexuals from openly serving in the military. About 200 supporters attended the event, chanting "Freedom to Serve" at the speakers’ prompting. Organizers from the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network hope this year, with a Congress controlled by Democrats and a president who has publicly stated his opposition to the policy, they can muster enough votes do away with the limits on homosexual servicemembers.

Manila Standard, Posted: 3/4/2009, 6:19 AM
The Philippines military and police tolerate homosexuals within their ranks—as long as they are not openly gay, officials said yesterday. Armed Forces Chief Alexander Yano said the military was open to gay recruits as long as they didn’t show their tendencies. “As of now we don’t have a policy on the admittance of soldier candidates who are gay,” Yano said. Brig. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan, civil relations chief, added: “If you are qualified, I guess we are not biased against the third sex.” A spokesman for the National Police said the same was true of law enforcement. “The Philippine National Police does not discriminate against men who are gays and women who are lesbians entering the service after rigorous mental and physical examinations,” said Director German Doria, chief of the agency’s community relations group. “What we are against is their open display of their being lesbians or homosexuals.”

Politico, Posted: 3/3/2009, 2:14 PM
It is precisely the sort of knife fight no president wants to get into, especially in his first 100 days. But it seems that President Barack Obama is about to get dragged down the same dark alley as Bill Clinton when he was forced to confront the highly charged issue of gays in the military early in his term. On Monday, buoyed by a stronger Democratic majority in Congress, Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.) will introduce legislation to overturn the ban against homosexuals serving openly in the military, a Tauscher aide said. Clinton’s handling of the issue was widely condemned, and the entire fiasco became a textbook example of the sort of avoid-at-all-cost political controversy that can seriously undermine a new president. The issue is risky for Obama, too, political analysts said, threatening to galvanize social conservatives and other political opponents.