Congress

60-day waiting period before DADT repealed

Overturning the military ban on openly gay servicemembers serving will not occur immediately, Politico reports.

Federal News Network Staff

December 20, 2010 2:50 pm

1 min read

The military’s policy toward gay and lesbian soldiers is not going to change right away — not until the White House receives certification from top military commanders that states they are ready for open service.

Politico reports there will still be a waiting period of 60 days before the ban is actually overturned.

The Senate voted Saturday to end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the military’s ban on gays in the military. The vote was 65 to 31. Eight Republicans joined with Democrats to repeal the 17-year-old policy.

Now there are questions about what new training the Department of Defense will roll out to get troops ready for the repeal, what administrative changes will have to be made, and how much time will it take.

In the meantime, advocates of repealing DADT want President Obama to order that no service members be discharged until the ban goes away.

Politico cites a new study by the Palm Center makes the case that DoD should be able to change the policy in only a few weeks. The report stated that DoD begins implementing policy changes all of the time, prior to making changes in training procedures. It took DoD about 40 days to implement Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in 1994, according to the Palm research.

This story is part of Federal News Radio’s daily DoD Report. For more defense news, click here.