"Don't ask, don't tell" -- repealing "don't ask, don't tell" is a serious matter.
The case pits the military's don't ask, don't tell policy against law schools' policies against discrimination.
But President Barack Obama has now signed separate legislation overturning the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
First it was the military, with the repeal of don't ask, don't tell.
The year before, the U.S. military repealed its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly.
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And as was the case with "don't ask, don't tell, " troops were expected to fall in line with the new rules.
There are those who want to bring "don't ask, don't tell" back.
Few doubted that he was in favour of gay marriage but "don't ask, don't tell" had worked well enough up until now.
It is a marked difference from the way the military ended the exclusion of gays serving openly, or the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Since don't ask, don't tell was introduced, the military has discharged more than 13, 000 lesbians, gays and bisexuals, according to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
He cited the repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and said his administration had dropped support for the Defense of Marriage Act.
Among those, 78 - less than a quarter of one percent - were separated for reasons related to the euphemistic "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
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Setting aside all the flawed assumptions that undergird those fears, you know what has happened to unit cohesion since the fall of don't ask, don't tell?
During his tour, Manzella was contacted by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a national nonprofit offering legal assistance to those affected by don't ask, don't tell.
"In the respect that I believe that the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy is working in the military, I don't know how you view that, " the Republican senator said.
Administration officials say the president is seeking to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" as part of a "lasting and durable" solution, which precludes interventions in individual cases.
Former President Bill Clinton tried to overturn the "don't ask, don't tell" policy when he took office in 1993, but he was strenuously opposed by the military leadership.
Clinton also said she thinks the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which keeps gay men and lesbians from serving in the military if they publicly acknowledge their sexual orientation, should be repealed.
"What we want is to take the time in this forum to not just hear a quick sound bite -'yes, I'm for reform of don't ask, don't tell', " he told the BBC News website.
Obama administration officials point to what they see as the administration's biggest accomplishment in the gay rights cause: repealing "don't ask, don't tell, " the military's ban on openly gay and lesbian members serving in the forces.
Among those surveyed, it is likely that not many may have served, understand the law, its basis, its distinction from the misstated "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, or the implications of open homosexuality in the ranks.
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We only had a few short weeks to deal with a lot of complicated issues, including repealing "don't ask, don't tell, " dealing with a START treaty to reduce nuclear weapons, and come to terms with a budget.
The US military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which allows gay people to serve if they do not declare their sexuality or engage in homosexual acts, remains controversial and is sure to be raised at the debate.
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" isn't the law.
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President Obama's effort to repeal what he misleadingly calls "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (which was actually the Clinton-era Pentagon directive, not the statute in question) has foisted upon his allies on Capitol Hill yet another, potentially crushing political liability.
Allyson Robinson of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, one of the groups which successfully campaigned to let gays serve openly in the military, said repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" has given more male soldiers the confidence to report same-sex assaults.
By the next morning, Manzella's supervisor had reported him as having broken the law under "don't ask, don't tell, " the 1993 policy that prohibits anyone who "demonstrate(s) a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts" from serving in the U.S. military.
"The successful repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell' proved to the nation that just like the country we defend, we share different backgrounds, different values and different beliefs but together we are the greatest military force in the world, " Panetta said Friday in a video message to troops.
President Obama and his allies insist that that law - which is incessantly and incorrectly called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, " the nickname for a Clinton-era Defense Department regulation that was intended to undermine the statute by allowing gays to serve as long as they kept their sexual preferences a secret - is a throw-back to an by-gone era.
And in terms of the White House reaching out to Senator Levin to ask him to delay the hearings on "don't ask, don't tell, " do you have any knowledge of that?
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