Pentagon suspends DADT in wake of court ruling

Well, holy crapola, I was wrong. Rather than ignore the recent appellate court ruling that put an immediate block on any further enforcement of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, the Pentagon has actually gone ahead and issued a moratorium halting any current discharge proceedings against outed LGBT personnel and will even begin accepting applications from openly gay prospective recruits:

The Pentagon has ordered a halt to all separations of gay troops under “don’t ask, don’t tell” and will begin accepting applications from prospective recruits who identify themselves as homosexuals.

The moratorium issued Friday came after a ruling Wednesday by a federal appeals court in California ordering the Defense Department to immediately stop enforcing the law. The court said the law is unconstitutional because it treats gay Americans differently under the law.

Meanwhile, defense officials will continue to prepare for the law’s formal repeal, which Congress approved in December. The law will be formally repealed 60 days after the defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs “certify” that it will not adversely impact military readiness.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he expected certification to occur in late July or early August.

It remains unclear whether the Pentagon will seek to appeal Wednesday’s court ruling, which would have to go to the Supreme Court, Pentagon spokesman Marine Col. David Lapan said Friday.

It seems to me that the Pentagon may not exactly be intending to oppose the court ruling if they’ve actually up and declared that DADT is now even less enforceable than it was previously and are even accepting openly homosexual recruits. Let the dice land where they roll; it’ll all be over come August, anyway. Finally.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Tags: US Military • Pentagon • Don't Ask, Don't Tell