Tag: Don’t Tell

Colorado US Senator Mark Udall on Thursday denounced a move by Republican members of the House seeking to postpone repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy that bars gay soldiers from serving openly. The policy was lifted by lawmakers last December, a move spearheaded by Udall, and is set to end officially this Tuesday according to a plan drawn up and followed over roughly the last year by military leaders. Yet, in a letter today, House Armed Services Committee Chair Buck McKeon and Military Personnel Subcommittee Chairman Joe Wilson asked Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to, essentially, turn in paperwork to them before allowing the repeal to take effect.

Colorado U.S. Senator Mark Udall is leading the fight for equal rights for gay Americans on Capitol Hill and on the video internet. He released a YouTube for gay rights organization One Colorado during gay pride week and is a major presence in the Senate contribution to the "It Gets Better" campaign aimed at gay kids teased or bullied at school.

The Defense Department, after discharging gay soldiers under the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, apparently sends them bills requiring them to pay back "unearned portions" of their contracts. High-profile discharged soldier Dan Choi received his bill this week from Defense Department Finance and Debt Services in the amount of $2,500. He sent a strongly worded letter to White House Public Engagement Director Brian Bond explaining why he wasn't going to pay.

In a major victory for opponents of the military’s ban on open homosexual service, Defense Secretary Robert Gates significantly revised how the Pentagon will implement the so-called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, effectively making it difficult to remove a soldier, sailor, airman or marine who does not out himself or herself as gay.