Activists show patience on repealing gay ban

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Activists show patience on repealing gay ban
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Nov 21, 2008 15:48:23 EST

While expecting President-elect Barack Obama to carry through with his campaign promise to allow gays to openly serve in the military, representatives of the Servicemembers’ Legal Defense Network, which represents gay-rights issues for current and former military members, accepts that it may not be one of the first things Obama does.

“We do want to get it done in the next Congress,” said SLDN communications director Adam Ebbin, but the group recognizes there are “some others things that might be at the top of the agenda, like the economy” for the incoming president.

Obama may become commander-in-chief on Jan. 20, but that does not give him the ability to unilaterally repeal the ban on open service by gays; that can be done only with the agreement of Congress.

After President Clinton tried to repeal the then-regulatory ban on gays in the military in 1993, Congress passed, and Clinton signed, a new law that prohibits military service by anyone who engages in homosexual acts or announces a propensity to do so.

Public Law 103-160, includes a finding that homosexuality is “incompatible” with military service.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/military_dontask_delay_112108w/%2e