By Andrew Harmon

House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Bud McKeon and Rep. Joe Wilson have asked for a delay in “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal, set for September 20, because the committee has not received a summary of policy changes on benefits and other matters, they write. 

“The Department is not ready to implement the repeal because all the policies and regulations necessary for the transition are not yet final,” the two Republican congressmen wrote in a letter dated September 12. “We would ask that the senior military leaders’ memoranda immediately be made public and transmitted to the Committee on Armed Services.” (Fox News has a report and link to the letter here.) 

A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that the repeal date will stand, however. 

“The repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ will occur, in accordance with the law and after a rigorous certification process, on September 20,” the Pentagon spokesman said. “Senior Department of Defense officials have advised Congress of changes to regulations and policies associated with repeal. We take that obligation seriously.”

Update: Servicemembers Legal Defense Network executive director Aubrey Sarvis issued the following statement on the letter from McKeon and Wilson:

“This is another example of the hardcore opposition attempting to delay or undo ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ repeal. I expect they will continue to look for openings to deny gay and lesbian service members the same rights and dignity as their straight counterparts. On the substance, Mr. McKeon and Mr. Wilson are simply wrong. The statute only requires that the new regulations be prepared — not issued — before certification.”

21/07/2011 22:21

By Julian E. Barnes 

Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 
 

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)—Top defense officials plan to certify on Friday that the Pentagon is ready to end the ban on gays serving openly in the military, officials said, and a landmark moment after almost two decades of controversy.

The move closes one chapter, but opens another. The military has now to resolve critical questions such as benefits same-sex couples will receive.

(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal website, WSJ.com.)

While the military will be free to provide some services to same-sex spouses, like family support for spouses of deployed service members, it will be blocked from providing the full range of health, housing and education benefits under federal law.

Under the law passed late last year by Congress, the repeal of the 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law will go into effect 60 days after the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify that military readiness will not be harmed by the repeal of the ban.

The 9th Circuit Court of appeals has put in place an injunction preventing the military from enforcing the ban, which has halted any discharges under the policy and prevented recruiters from turning away openly gay recruits. However, until the ban is formally repealed, gay rights advocates have advised service members not to reveal their sexual identity.

With Friday’s actions the ban will formally disappear in late September.

Officials are likely to use the remainder of the summer to try and hammer out some of the unanswered questions about what military benefits same sex couples are eligible for. The military is also wrestling with other, more minor questions, like whether same sex unions can be performed in military chapels.

With the repeal in place, many senior military officials have said privately they are personally in favor of extending equal rights to same sex couples. Advocates are counting on those officers to make the case to Congress that current law should be changed.

Read More

(Source: morningstar.co.uk)

fuckyeahlgbtmilitary:

A federal appeals court revived part of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy late Friday, ruling that the military can continue to reject openly gay enlistees but must suspend all investigations and discharges under the beleaguered 1993 law aimed at gay members of the armed forces.

In an order issued Friday night, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said a government filing Thursday gave the court information it had not previously known about the progress of a repeal process that Congress put into place for “don’t ask, don’t tell” in a statute passed last December. Just last week, the same three-judge panel said changes in the administration’s stance warranted reinstating a lower court’s ban on all enforcement of “don’t ask,” at least while the government’s appeal went forward.

The appeals court said its latest order is only temporary and it asked the Justice Department to explain why the court wasn’t told earlier that only one person has been discharged from the military under “don’t ask” since the repeal legislation was passed last year or that the military services were just weeks away from giving the green-light for a certification that can lead to repeal of “don’t ask” under last year’s law.

You can read the court’s order here.

transcriber:

Click Here To View Video

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 13, 2011 – All of the services and combatant commands have provided their input to the Defense Department in advance of the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that bans gays from serving openly in the military, a Pentagon spokesman said here today.

The input includes progress on training of the force, the regulatory aspects of the change in the law and other aspects, Marine Corps Col. Dave Lapan said.

“Ultimately, it’s for the services to provide their input to the secretary about whether their services are prepared for repeal to take place,” Lapan said.

No requirement exists for 100 percent of the force to receive training prior to repeal, the colonel said. “It is more in the nature of giving the input where all the services are in the training and whether they’ve reached a point where they believe they are ready to move forward,” he explained.

The department actually is trying to follow two laws, Lapan said. The first is the original law passed in 1993. Its provisions were to remain in effect until repeal. The second law calls for repeal to take effect after certification that the services are ready.

However, a court in California ruled that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law is unconstitutional. The U.S. government asked for a stay, and a three-panel court of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the stay. On July 6, the court vacated the stay and gave the department 10 days to stop enforcing the provisions of the old law.

“We have two laws: the law known as ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ that a court injunction has stopped us from enforcing, but we also have a law that requires us to certify that the force is ready for repeal,” Lapan said. “And we are trying to comply with both.”

Since then, Defense Department officials have been speaking with Justice Department lawyers about the next steps. In the meantime, the department continues to abide by the repeal law, and that is what the input from the services represents, Lapan said.

The services have provided the input, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the secretary of defense will make their decision when to certify to the president that DOD is ready to move forward with repeal.

Lapan would not hazard a guess when the decision will land on the president’s desk.

(Source: defense.gov)

DADT Repeal: 

On July 6, 2011, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision that put back into effect a lower court order barring the enforcement of DADT. DoD/DoJ might challenge this decision, and they still have their appeal of the lower court order itself, which will be heard in late August.

While the July 6 decision says that DADT can’t be enforced, it does not overturn DADT, and it remains on the books. Although unlikely, it’s possible that some other court action could re-activate DADT enforcement. DADT repeal will not be final until 60 days after certification.

What’s next?

Certification: The President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff must certify that the Defense Department is prepared to implement repeal.

60-day waiting period: DADT will still be the law until 60 days after certification.

Continue to visit this page (http://www.sldn.org/Legal) for the latest updates.

In 2010, DoD made changes to how “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is implemented, including new protections for lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members. Those changes remain in effect. More recently, the Pentagon announced that all proposed DADT discharges, regardless of grade and rank, will be reviewed at the highest civilian levels. These are all important changes, but they do NOT end DADT.