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Congress to hold hearings on gay ban

The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold hearings this fall on the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law and policy on gays in the military that President Barack Obama wants repealed.

A date for the hearings has not been set, but it will be after the August congressional recess and probably after the committee completes work on the 2010 defense authorization bill.

The House Armed Services Committee also plans hearings later this year, according to its chairman, Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo.

Timing the hearings for after the major defense policy bill is approved, whether intentional or not, will delay until next year a decision about lifting the military’s ban on open service by gays and repeal of the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” law.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., made the announcement in a Monday statement, saying Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the armed services committee chairman, had agreed to hold hearings.

Levin spokeswoman Tara Andringa said the chairman has agreed to hold hearings but has not determined when, or whether, such hearings would be before the full committee or a subcommittee.

Gillibrand and Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., are the two lawmakers leading the effort in Congress to change the law.

The Senate Armed Services Committee created the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, establishing a ban on open military service by gays but then devising a policy that allows gays to serve as long as their sexual orientation remains secret and they do not engage in any homosexual acts.

Gillibrand said 265 service members have been discharged for violating the ban since Obama took office in January. “This policy is wrong for our national security and wrong for the moral foundation upon which our country was founded,” she said.

Levin supports repealing the ban but said changing it is going to be up to Obama selling the idea and military leaders accepting it. He has backed the idea of surveying current service members on their attitudes about serving alongside openly gay or lesbian people.

“I think there may be a different response to such a survey than there may have been 10 years ago or 20 years ago,” Levin said at a June 25 news conference.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, ranking Republican on the Senate committee, said he wants top military commanders involved in any discussion of changing the law.

“I’d like, among other things, to have the chairman of the Joint Chiefs conduct an in-depth study and come up with recommendations,” McCain said at the same news conference.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen have been in discussions with the White House about the possibility of lifting the ban. Those talks reportedly have focused in part on how and when the ban could be lifted, but no recommendations have been announced.