Yesterday, the head of the Navy, who originally opposed attempts to repeal the military's gay ban, made some positive comments about the yearlong study on DADT. This is important because McCain's only evidence for his unjust stand on DADT is that the four Service Chiefs do not want it repealed. Today, yet another one seems to have changed his mind.
This morning, at a breakfast with a group of reporters called the Defense Writers Group, Air Force Chief of Staff Norton Schwartz, who also endorsed the policy to McCain, similarly distanced himself from McCain’s claims that the report would not sufficiently inform the armed forces on the consequences of repeal. According to Stars and Stripes reporter Leo Shane, Schwartz described the Working Group review as a "good and healthy" process:
The White House Press Secretary also said yesterday that the service chiefs' opposition to repeal of DADT has been known for a long time and it wouldn't hinder a repeal of the ban:
Asked by the Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson if Obama anticipates the service chiefs — all of whom had previously opposed repeal — can be swayed by the report, Gibbs said that the chiefs are still engaged in ongoing discussions with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen about their positions. He added Obama hasn’t yet seen the report, but hinted that he would not necessarily need the support of the chiefs to go through with repeal.
"The President has known where people have stood on this policy for as long as he’s supported changing that policy, so I think it will be important to view the attitudes and to use those attitudes to craft a pathway to implementing a changed legislative policy," Gibbs said.
Still though, if they're coming around, this is a good development. The president seems to favor governing by consensus. I am personally hostile to that strategy (when it comes to LGBT rights, because obviously it will never be terribly easy to gain a consensus on pro-gay legislation) but if it works in this case, it works.
A couple months ago, during the Log Cabin Republicans DADT trial, when the legal status of DADT was in flux every other day, Defense Secretary Gates changed the rules for discharges, only allowing three people to sign off on them. Because of the new rules, no gay people were discharged this month:
Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith told The Associated Press that no discharges have been approved since Oct. 21.
Smith did not know if the absence of recent discharges was related to the new separation procedures. The Pentagon has not compiled monthly discharge figures for any other months this year, she said.
Based on historical trends, however, it appears the change, as well as moves by Gates and President Barack Obama to get Congress to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," has caused discharge rates to fall dramatically, said Aaron Belkin, executive director of the Palm Center, a pro-repeal think tank based at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Though Gates says the change wasn't meant to slow the rate of discharges, it has had that effect. But as Aubrey Sarvis from SLDN notes, the gay ban is not gone and it's still not safe for gay or lesbian soldiers to come out. Sarvis says that there are still ongoing investigations related to DADT discharges, whether those investigations led to discharges last month or not.
UPDATE: Think Progress obtained a letter to McCain from Defense Secretary Gates, in which he smacks McCain down:
Responding to the Senator’s request in a previously unreleased letter from October 25, 2010, Gates explained that the review was not a "referendum" on the policy, stressing, "I do not believe that military policy decisions — on this or any other subject — should be made through a referendum of Servicemembers."