Reply #159: Thank you for agreeing with me on the EO. To address your

[msanthrope]

other points...

1) Gates already changed the military regulations to reflect what you asked for. A poster, who does not agree with me, upthread, gave this link...

A 'More Humane' Don't Ask, Don't Tell? Military Adjusts Approach to Outing Gays
Pentagon Announces New Measures to Soften Policy on Military Gays

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/gays-military-pentagon-announce-humane-approach/story?id=10194160

That, he is allowed to do under DADT, because DADT allows him some latitude in setting regulations...essentially, Gates can control much of the "Don't Ask" portion of the regs.

ETA--Gates cannot control assholes who want to be sticklers. Only repeal will remove the power of those who WANT to persecute.


2) Gates can't control the "Don't Tell" part. Once the cat is out of the bag, the military doesn't get the option of running around with their fingers in their ears yelling "LALALALALALALA".

ONLY repeal will change that. Why? Because under DADT, 'homosexuality' is considered a unit cohesion problem. Those are taken seriously.


3) The rest of your approach creates due process problems. Sure, there's lots of paperwork. With timelines. You can only 'slow it' so much.
And Obama can't order anyone to be 'less efficient.'

(And then there's the problem that repeal might not be retroactive. Issue for another day.)


4) Frehrenbach, but for publicly outing himself*** would have been okay. The military doesn't have much of a choice when there's a public declaration.


***Yes, I understand and sympathize with the fact that this wasn't an outing that was necessarily made freely. I understand why he had to do it.