The year before, the U.S. military repealed its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly.
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Mr Obama has promised to repeal the Defence of Marriage Act and to let gays serve openly in the armed forces.
Gays may serve openly, without fear of prejudice and they seem to fight and fit in perfectly well when they do (see article).
He insisted that he will implement the military's policy allowing gays to serve openly and move ahead on opening combat roles to women.
Why else would it take so long for legislation to allow gay soldiers to serve openly in the army to limp through Congress?
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Second, allowing gays to serve openly could actually be bad for recruitment: the extra homosexuals would be outnumbered by the homophobic Americans thus deterred.
Earlier this year President Barack Obama signed into law a bill repealing the "don't ask don't tell" law and allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the US military.
He did so by pursuing a course of action vehemently opposed by the nation's military in order to pander to politically active homosexuals insisting on the right to serve openly in the armed forces.
And so, as the first generation to serve openly in our Armed Forces, you will stand for all those who came before you, and you will serve as role models to all who come after.
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And the Democrats may further sour the atmosphere by attaching to the budget measures the Republicans oppose, allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces or granting citizenship to illegal immigrants who join the army or attend university.
Allyson Robinson of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, one of the groups which successfully campaigned to let gays serve openly in the military, said repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" has given more male soldiers the confidence to report same-sex assaults.
Regardless of how the court rules, gay-rights activists generally feel Obama has kept his pledge from December 2008 to be a "fierce advocate" for their causes by supporting gay marriage and enabling gays to serve openly in the armed forces.
When the dust settles on this battle, my bet is that the American people and their elected representatives will continue overwhelmingly to oppose conferring on gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender individuals and hermaphrodites a non-existent "right" to serve openly in the military.
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All civilized countries already allow their gay members to openly serve in the military without any noticeable effect on their military readiness, unit cohesiveness or any of the other things that Republicans get worked up about.
The Boy Scouts of America does not permit openly gay people to serve in the organization a decision that has come under increasing fire over the years.
If the military had a troop shortage could shore up its numbers by allowing openly gay service members to serve, it would have done that a long time ago, too.
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The anti-gay charge has been pushed by the Log Cabin Republicans as well as some liberal groups for Hagel's opposition to Bill Clinton's 1998 nomination of the openly gay James Hormel to serve as ambassador of Luxembourg.
In what may be an analogous situation, the Administration lost control of a military issue when its unilateral effort to allow openly gay men and women to serve in uniform created a fire storm of opposition in Congress.
Portman told CNN he sought counsel from a Republican who did serve as vice president: Dick Cheney, the highest-ranking Republican with an openly gay child, his daughter Mary.
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