WASHINGTON–(ENEWSPF)–February 2 – During an historic hearing today in the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael G. Mullen, called for an end to the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The policy, passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton in 1993, states that openly lesbian and gay individuals pose “an unacceptable threat to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability,” and prevents gay and lesbian individuals from serving openly in the military.
