In response, the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota filed a complaint, questioning the conduct of the officers involved.

The complaint stems from an incident last November. Rapid City police officers went to serve a warrant on Cheryl Hutson, who shares a home with Jene’ Newsome. When police couldn’t find Hutson, Newsome was called.

When Newsome arrived at the house, she found Hutson and police inside. “Other than them trying to get me to help them out, I wasn’t involved at all,” she told a KOTA reporter.

The officers noticed an Iowa marriage certificate on the kitchen table, and while the marriage did not relate to the police matter, the officers reported it to the Ellsworth AFB Office of Special Investigations. Newsome was promptly discharged for violating Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Rapid City Chief of Police Steve Allender told KOTA it is standard policy. “I’ll just say when a member of the Air Force is involved in an incident, we have a long standing policy to report those occurrences to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations,” Allender said.

In a memo outlining the parameters of the upcoming study, Gates says that “given the political dimension of this issue” that it is important to, in his words, “shield our men and women in uniform and their families from those aspects of this debate.”

The internal assessment is the first of its kind since 1993, when Congress passed a law banning gay service members from acknowledging that they are gay and the Pentagon adopted its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy based on that law.

Gates says he wants to ensure changes in the policy won’t hurt military effectiveness.

According to a story in the Charlotte Observer, the Charlotte Rainbow Action Network for Equality hopes to gather at least 13,500 toy soldiers to deliever to Myrick’s office, symbolizing all of the men and women discharged from the military as a result of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. A rally is planned for this afternoon, launching the March for Myrick campaign.

According to a CRANE news release, “On April Fool’s Day, these 13,500 soldiers will march on Myrick as we personally deliver them to her Charlotte office. Our message is clear: Only a fool would stand in the way of supporting our troops, military readiness and national security.”

Matt Corner, an organizer of the group, told the Observer that Myrick was selected for the campaign because of her work on military issues.

“Representative Myrick has very much a pro-military, pro-national security record,” Comer told the paper. “In the past couple years, she’s spoken out on issues especially when it comes to the war on terror. Since she does place such an importance on military readiness, it makes no sense she would not sponsor the military readiness bill.”

Host Sean Hannity questioned North on his feelings about the potential repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

North called the move to repeal the law a “stunning assault on the all-volunteer military, the very best in the world. Barack Obama now intents to treat them like lab rats in a radical social experiment, and it can be very, very detrimental.”

Moments later he added, “Now, here’s what’s next. NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) members, same-sex marriages. Are chaplains in the U.S. military going to be required to perform those kinds of rituals? Do they get government housing?”

* President Barack Obama’s signing last year of hate crimes legislation marked the first time that gays and lesbians were given comprehensive legal status as a protected class. Many states have passed laws against hate crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

* Massachusetts, Iowa, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont and the District of Columbia have adopted laws permitting marriage of gay couples. Another nine states – New Jersey, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Maine, Hawaii and Wisconsin – have granted various degrees of similar rights to gay domestic partners.

* The public’s attitude toward gays and lesbians has undergone a significant shift. The gay-rights group Human Rights Campaign says polls show about three-quarters of Americans say it’s OK for gays to serve openly in the military, compared with 44 percent in 1993.

* Internationally, the list of countries that allow openly gay people to serve in their armed forces has grown to 28, including Canada, Israel, Australia and most of Europe.

* The U.S. Census has for the first time begun tabulating information about gay couples who live together.

* Supporters of gay rights have formed a House caucus, which has 83 members. There are three openly gay members of Congress: Reps. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Jared Polis of Colorado, all Democrats.

* Overall, there were about 50 openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered elected officials in the United States in 1993, according to the Victory Fund, which recruits and promotes gay candidates. Today, there are 460. The nation’s fourth-largest city, Houston, Texas, installed openly gay Annise Parker as mayor last month.

* A 2003 ruling by the Supreme Court said that anti-sodomy statutes are unconstitutional, and that states can’t criminalize intimate relations between same-sex partners.

Other advisers at the Pentagon, however, argue that lifting the ban would not cause unmanageable problems or divisions among the uniformed military, according to two U.S. officials. They discussed internal conversations about the ban on condition of anonymity.

“Now is not the time,” the in-house legal counsel for Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote recently in a memorandum obtained by The Associated Press. “The importance of winning the wars we are in, along with the stress on the force, our body of knowledge and the number of unknowns, demand that we act with deliberation.”

Mullen received the conflicting advice this month about whether to move quickly to lift the 1993 ban, and it is not clear what he will recommend to President Barack Obama. Although allowing gays to serve openly in the military was one of Obama’s campaign promises, the issue was put on a back burner during his first year in office. Some liberal supporters and several congressional Democrats are pushing for action.

Mullen and other Pentagon leaders have quietly begun a new push to build consensus for the timing of a repeal that Mullen and others assume will come eventually. Strong opposition to swift repeal remains among top uniformed military leaders.

Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for Mullen, would not discuss the legal advice and said there has been no decision among the Joint Chiefs about what to do or when. He would not characterize Mullen’s own views.

“They continue to have a dialogue about the policy and the law,” keeping in mind Obama’s “strategic intent” to lift the ban, Kirby said.

Mullen was unable to get the full backing of other senior uniformed leaders during an unusual meeting of the top officers from each branch of the military last week, U.S. officials said. He is expected to hold a follow-up session within days.

Joint Chiefs legal advisers recommended delaying the start of the repeal process into 2011, with the Pentagon sending a proposed replacement law to Congress by late summer of that year. That would be after the White House says it will begin bringing troops home from Afghanistan, and a few months before all U.S. forces are due to leave Iraq.

Congress would follow with debate lasting six months to a year, the legal advisers wrote, meaning repeal would be unlikely until 2012. The memo does not spell it out, but that is a presidential election year when Obama will presumably run for a second term. The calendar calculates that the Iraq war would be over and the Afghanistan war smaller before the ban is lifted.

Mullen and other military leaders cautioned last year that repeal of the law must be done carefully so as not to disrupt military cohesion in wartime. Last April, Defense Secretary Robert Gates indicated the process could take years – if it ever happens.

At the time, Gates noted that it took five years for the U.S. military to racially integrate during the Truman administration.

“If we do it, it’s imperative that we do it right and very carefully,” Gates said then.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he wants to begin work this year on repealing the ban. He said he expects testimony from Mullen and Gates, although no date has been set.

Two officials said a hearing could be held in late January or early February, but that does not mean Congress would truly begin work on a new law that would allow openly gay service. Levin has asked Gates to request that the RAND Corp. think tank update its 1993 study on gays in the military before he goes ahead. That outside study would be expected to take several months.

Several other Democrats say they want to lift the ban on gays in the military. But party leaders have yet to press the issue, as Congress remains consumed with debate on the Afghanistan war and closing Guantanamo Bay prison, along with pressing domestic issues like unemployment and health care.

Not every Democrat wants to change the law. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in an interview Wednesday that he agrees with Mullen’s legal counsel.

“It’s not a good idea to change the law right now,” he said.

The American Medical Association also voted to declare that gay marriage bans contribute to health disparities for gay couples and their children.

Both gay-rights policies were adopted Tuesday at the AMA’s interim policy meeting in Houston.

The AMA says the ‘don’t ask, don’t-tell’ law creates an ethical dilemma for gay service members and the doctors who treat them.

The other measure declares that marriage bans leave gays vulnerable to being excluded from health care benefits, including health insurance and family and medical leave rights. The new AMA policy stops short of opposing the bans.

There was a bill signing at a wooden desk set up in the East Room, with the media invited, followed by a reception for joyous, champagne-sipping supporters and an address to them, again, from the East Room.

Obama was keeping a campaign promise to gays and lesbians by putting his signature on a bill to include violence against homosexuals in federal hate crimes law.

Of several such commitments to gay and lesbian supporters, it’s the first one he’s kept. Other promises are either pending or stalled entirely, proving a source of continued dismay for gay and lesbian advocates who worked to help him get elected.

As a candidate, Obama promised to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bars homosexuals from serving openly in the military. He pledged to work to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, which limits how states, local and federal bodies can recognize partnerships and determine benefits. He also promised to outlaw job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Nine months into his term, those promises aren’t close to being met.

While clearly pleased by Wednesday’s signing ceremony, which was attended by many members of Congress who came to witness the fruits of a decade of effort, Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said there is still a lot of work to be done.

“We look forward to the days ahead when we will join together again to celebrate full equality and recognition of our community, including in employment, the military and in the full recognition of our families,” Carey said.

The expanded law now also covers crimes motivated by gender identity or disability.

“No one in America should ever be afraid to walk down the street holding the hands of the person they love. No one in America should be forced to look over their shoulder because of who they are or because they live with a disability,” Obama said, referring to Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr., for whom the law is named.

Shepard was a gay Wyoming college student murdered in 1998; Byrd was a black man chained to a pickup truck by three white men and dragged to his death in east Texas that year.

Obama’s relationship with gay activists has been rocky since his election. They objected to the participation of evangelist Rev. Rick Warren in Obama’s inauguration because of Warren’s support for repealing gay marriage in California. Obama responded by having Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the denomination’s first openly gay bishop, participate at another event.

As president, Obama hasn’t taken any concrete steps to urge Congress to overturn the Clinton-era “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. He restated the pledge this month in a speech at the annual dinner of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay civil rights advocacy group.

“I will end ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’” Obama said, offering neither a timetable nor specifics on how it would be done. He noted that legislation is pending in the House, and that he is working with the Pentagon and Congress on ending the policy.

“We should not be punishing patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve this country,” he said. “We should be celebrating their willingness to show such courage and selflessness on behalf of their fellow citizens, especially when we’re fighting two wars.”

On job security for gays and lesbians, Obama said “we’re pushing hard” for it because “nobody in America should be fired because they’re gay.” He said “it’s not fair. It’s not right. We’re going to put a stop to it.”

Obama also pledged during the campaign to work for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. But administration lawyers did the opposite, defending the law in a court brief. White House aides said the lawyers were only doing their jobs by supporting an existing law.

Obama has expanded some federal benefits to same-sex partners, but not health benefits or pension guarantees. He has allowed State Department employees to include their same-sex partners in certain embassy programs available to opposite-sex spouses.

He said the administration “will take the necessary steps” to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA, which bars federal recognition of gay unions and denies gay couples access to pensions, health insurance and other government benefits. The administration is also committed to getting rid of the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy applying to military personnel.

That probably doesn’t mean much to you, but it should. That particular Under Secretary presides over the implementation – or repeal – of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, according to Politico’s Ben Smith.

Said SLDN in an email to Smith:

“There were indications of seriousness of purpose on DADT repeal today by this White House with its intent to nominate an Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. Dr. Stanley is likely to be the President’s key Pentagon player in the DADT debate and will be critical for the President in getting military uniform buy-in. Historically, the position of Under Secretary of Defense provides oversight of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’”

There is speculation that Stanley, whose wife was shot by a sniper because of the couple’s race and who has expressed satisfaction that the military changes over time, may opposes the military ban on the open serving of gays and lesbians. Sen. Kirsten Gilibrand (D-NY) told the Advocate:

“”I expect that the hearing on ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ will take place next month after the confirmation hearing for marine general Clifford Stanley. There is a lot more support in Congress for full repeal of DADT than people realize.”

 

This sign from the White House, along with the recent anti-discrimination policies coming from HHS and HUD, seem to indicate that the White House is taking real steps on our issues.