Go Back Allow Gay U.S. Military

»U.S. Army Homosexual Gay Pride parade in San Diego.

The U.S. government will soon lift a ban on membership of homosexuals in the military on Tuesday. With the lifting of this ban, the gay and lesbian people can freely express their identity without fear of being ostracized or expelled.
As quoted by news agency Reuters, 20 September 2011, the Pentagon spokesman, George Little, said the revocation decision has been through a long and tiring process.

"Removal of these restrictions is something that we long to know. We have gone through a series of processes to make it official," Little said.

Previously, this problem has been presented four times in a federal appeals court in 2004 and 2010. Regulation of the ban on homosexuals in the military, known as "Do not Ask, Do not Tell" (Do not Ask, Do not Tell / DADT) is called limit the basic rights of gays in the military.

DADT has been in effect since the reign of Bill Clinton in 1993. The Pentagon was then justified the existence of gays in the military would undermine morale and risks undermining the performance of soldiers in the field.

In addition, the existence of homosexual soldiers also feared could undermine the unity of force. As a result of this rule, more than 13 thousand soldiers fired gay until 2010.

President Barack Obama since his campaign in 2009 had promised to repeal DADT. In addition to violating human rights, Obama said due to DADT, the state lost millions of dollars to recruit new soldiers to replace those fired.

The news about the repeal of this rule has been warmly welcomed by the Log Cabin Republicans, gay rights groups of fighters. They said that DADT has curb freedoms and the rights of gays in the military. However, not a few who oppose the decision.

One of them is Navy Commander Gen. James Amos who said the troops would be ineffective in the presence of homosexual members.

With the lifting of this ban, the U.S. will become the 29th state to allow gays into the army, following in the footsteps of Israel, Canada, Germany, and Sweden.