Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is
urging the Obama administration to move quickly to end the military's
ban on open gay service, POLITICO reported.
“As Congress considers future
legislative action, we believe it would be helpful to hear your views
on the policy,” Reid
wrote in a letter addressed to the president. “I therefore
request that you bring to Congress your recommendations on DADT
(don't ask, don't tell).”
During the presidential campaign, Obama
pledged to repeal the law that forbids gay and lesbian service
members from revealing their sexuality at the risk of losing their
jobs. But the president has refused to sign an executive order that
would end the discharges while repeal legislation is being debated in
Congress, saying he's looking for a “durable” solution from
Congress.
Reid also forwarded a copy of the
letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Gates said during the
summer that the Pentagon was looking into ways to make its ban “more
humane.”
In the letter, Reid says he supports
efforts to repeal the law. Ironically, a Senate version of a bill
that would repeal the law has not been introduced. And Senate
hearings on the issue, announced
in July, have yet to materialize.
A Reid spokesperson told gay monthly
The
Advocate that the senator had not received a reply to his
September 24 letter from either President Obama or Secretary Gates.
Approximately 13,000 service members
have been fired for being gay since the policy was enacted in 1993.