A4
Politics & The Nation
Despite Obama’s expected signature, conditions must be met
BY ED O’KEEFE AND CRAIGWHITLOCK President Obama is scheduled
tosignlegislationWednesdaythat will end the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell”policy,officiallyshifting to the Defense Department the political pressure surrounding the repeal of the 17-year ban on gays serving openly in uniform. Even after Obama scrawls his
signature, the law won’t actually change until the Pentagon certi- fies to Congress that the military hasmet several preconditions, in- cluding education and training programs for troops. OnMonday, Pentagon officials repeatedly de- clined to predict how long they would need, saying only that they would proceed at a “methodical” and “deliberate” pace. “I don’t think anybody has any
idea yet how long this will take,” Pentagon spokesman GeoffMor- rell said. As senior military leaders pre-
pare to integrate openly gay men and lesbians, they are drawing on conclusions of a Pentagon study outlining tricky scenarios that might
arise.Among the hypothet- ical situations in the report: A chaplain’s sermon includes sever- aldirect statements callinghomo- sexuality a sin. An applicant in- forms recruiters that he is gay. Troops are heard making jokes about using the same showers as gay colleagues. Some commanders who op-
posetherepealwarnedinthedays before Saturday’s historic vote to end the ban that such incidents could compromise the military’s ability to fight two wars. But the 300-plus-pagereportprovidespo- tential solutions for each, and re- minds commanders that such is- sues shouldbe treatedthe sameas incidents of harassment, racism or sexism. The sermons and teachings of
the chaplain could not be restrict- ed, unless he publicly maligned military leaders, the report said. The applicantwho shares his sex- ual orientationshouldbehandled like any other recruit. Command- ers should remind the joking troops that discrimination or ha- rassmentagainstgay colleagues is inappropriate, but could grant a service member’s request not to shower among them. The process of ending the ban
should not be “overly burden- some,” White House press secre- taryRobertGibbs saidMonday. In an e-mail sent Sunday night
to airmen, Air Force Chief of Staff Norton A. Schwartz said: “The standards of conductwe expect of all Airmenwill not
change.More- over, we will continue to treat each other, asmembers of the Air Force family, with dignity and re- spect.” Clifford L. Stanley, the under-
secretary of defense for person- nel, will lead the policy overhaul, the Pentagon said. The change will not occur until Obama, De- fense Secretary Robert M. Gates andJointChiefsofStaffChairman Mike Mullen inform Congress in writing that the military is pre- pared for implementation and has drafted the necessary policies and regulations. Those changes must not affect troop readiness, cohesion, ormilitary recruitment and retention, according to the law. Once the written notice is submitted, 60 days must elapse before “don’t ask, don’t tell” is officially repealed. Gay rights leaders who pushed
to end the policy think the mili- tary couldendfull enforcement in amatter ofweeks. “The troops already know how
to interactwith gays because they do so every day,” said Aaron Bel- kin, executivedirectorof thePalm Center, a think tank at theUniver- sity ofCalifornia at SantaBarbara that isdevotedtothe studyof gays in themilitary. Some gay rights activists are
urging Obama and Gates to issue an immediatemoratoriumon the discharge of gay troops. Morrell said Monday that doing so was unlikely, but he noted that Gates previously tightened the rules un- derwhichservicemembers canbe kicked out of the military for be- ing gay. The new rules, which took ef-
fectOct.21, requirethesecretaries of theArmy,Navy andAirForce to review all discharge cases. Since then, no one has been forced out under the new policy, Pentagon officials said. Cases that were in the bureaucratic pipeline before October, however, have resulted in some recent discharges; Penta- gon officials said they could not say howmany. Frank Barrett, a professor of
management and organizational behavior at the Naval Postgradu- ateSchool inMonterey,Calif.,pre- dicted that themilitarywillmove quicklytoimplement thenewlaw,
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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2010 ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ ban on gays won’t change immediately
but that the ease of doing so will vary widely among the different branches. “The real challenge of repeal-
ing ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is that it challenges the warrior ethos, what it means to be a warrior,” Barrett said. Warriors, he said, forge a “bonding love” during combat and preparation for war. The question that arises, he said, is:Canpeoplewhoareuncomfort- able with gays continue to form those close warrior bonds with
openly gay troops? “TheMarines are going to have
the hardest time, and the Air Force is going to have the easiest time,” he said. “The Air Force doesn’t do eye-to-eye combat. But Marines, they are close-knit in close quarters, and the identity of hyper-masculinity is so core to theirmission.” Gen. James F. Amos, the Ma-
rine Corps commandant and one of the chief critics of ending the ban, said Sunday that Marines
“will step out smartly to faithfully implement this newpolicy.” Among many Army officers,
news of the repeal yieldedmore of a shrug than celebration or out- rage. “The talk among most of my
soldiers is, ‘We don’t care,’ ” said one Army officer at Fort Stewart, Ga. “Theperceptionhasbeenfora whilethat this isadonedealandis going to happen sooner or later.” Most officers said that repeal- ing the law would at least bring
some clarity to the murky situa- tion surrounding it. One officer who recently went through a pre- command course to prepare him to lead a combat arms battalion said the possibility of ending the lawbarely cameupduring several weeks of courses. “Culturally, it will be okay —
especially with the younger sol- diers,” the officer said. A worry that he and many others share is that the Pentagon would overre- act toperceivedproblems inaunit
and institute some form of mili- tary-wide training. “Mybiggest concernishowstu-
pid the bureaucracy gets if some- thing happens,” the officer said. He and other officers were spoke on the condition of anonymity becausetheyarenotauthorizedto discuss thematter on the record.
ed.okeefe@washingtonpost.com whitlockc@washpost.com
StaffwriterGreg Jaffe contributed to this report.
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