Chairman of Joint Chiefs and DADT

In this area with its huge number of military personnel, one much needed change on the gay rights front is the elimination of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," a ridiculous policy that forces people to live a lie or double lives in order to protect their military careers and which allows a disgruntled service member to retaliate against those they do not like by alleging that they are gay. The policy serves no purpose other than to appease the Kool-Aid drinkers of the Christianist camp and homophobic "old school" members of the military who likely have their own unresolved issues concerning sexual orientation. A new article in the New York Times suggest that the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff may be the man to help move DADT to the garbage heap of history. Here are some highlights:

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As President-elect Barack Obama convened the first meeting of his national security advisers on Monday, there was just one person at the table whom Mr. Obama did not choose to have there: Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Admiral Mullen, who was selected by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates for a two-year term, has been on the job for a year.

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Admiral Mullen, the son of a former Hollywood press agent whose clients included Anthony Quinn and Julie Andrews, has a world view that friends say is closer to that of Mr. Obama than to President Bush.

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In preparation for his new commander in chief, Admiral Mullen is overseeing the final stages of a comprehensive military strategy review of the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan — one of four such studies in the government — to guide Mr. Obama in his first days as president. More quietly, he has also had initial conversations with his top commanders about potential changes in the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law that allows gay men and lesbians to serve in the military as long as they keep their sexual orientation secret.

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Mr. Obama has taken a strong stand against the law as a moral issue, although his team has signaled that he will not push for its repeal in the early months of his administration to avoid the kind of blowup that engulfed President Bill Clinton when he sought to lift an outright ban on gay men and lesbians in the military in his first days in office.

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Fifteen years later, Mr. Obama is of the view that “don’t ask, don’t tell” is long out of date and that it is time for gay men and lesbians to serve openly. “The president-elect’s been pretty clear that he wants to address this issue,” Admiral Mullen said in the interview. “And so I am certainly mindful that at some point in time it could come.”