An internal survey conducted by the Department of Defense involving active duty and reserve troops found that more than 70% of respondents did not express opposition to repealing the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military. The effect of discarding “don’t ask, don’t tell” would either be positive, mixed or nonexistent, according to The Washington Post, which spoke with two people who have read the unpublished 370-page Pentagon report.

 

The authors of the study, Defense Department general counsel Jeh Johnson and Army Gen. Carter Ham, reportedly concluded that lifting the ban would not interfere with the war effort in Afghanistan, and that objections within the armed services to openly-gay soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines would drop once they were able to live and serve alongside everyone else.

 

Surveys were sent to 400,000 active-duty and reserve troops and to 150,000 military spouses.

 

Objections were apparently greatest among Marines. Marine Corps Commandant James Amos has spoken out against lifting the ban, and reportedly the report concluded that about 40% of Marines expressed concern about gays serving openly.

 

President Barack Obama is expected to receive the report by December 1.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Sources: Pentagon Group Finds There Is Minimal Risk to Lifting Gay Ban during War (by Ed O'Keefe and Greg Jaffe, Washington Post)

Report: Little Risk to War from Gays in Combat (by Anne Flaherty, Associated Press)