WASHINGTON — The Defense Department starts the clock next week on what is expected to be a several-year process in lifting its ban on gays from serving openly in the military.

via Pentagon starts process of lifting gay ban – washingtonpost.com.

So part of me is going “Yay, their working on it, finally!”  The other part is asking “Years? Really? Come on!”  Fine, I understand it’s D.C.  everything there takes ages.  I get that a lot of those old school, should have been gone long ago, way behind the times politicians are going to work hard against the repeal and hold back for as long as they can.  As was stated in the article by Defense Secretary Robers Gates:

In a speech last year at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., Gated noted that the 1948 executive order for racial integration took five years to implement.

“I’m not saying that’s a model for this, but I’m saying that I believe this is something that needs to be done very, very carefully,” he told the audience.

The ball officailly starts rolling on Tuesday, at the Congressional hearing.  Gates will announce a halt in discharges of service members whose sexual orientation is revealed by third parties or jilted partners.  It’s something, but even this might be take a while to implement.  And why not a halt to all firings while all this is being decided?

Republicans are going to fight this all the way.  They are going to drag it out for as long as possible.  It’s up to us to keep pushing on this.  We can’t stop all our efforts just because they are now telling us it’s in the works.  We need to make sure DADT gets repealed as quickly as possible.

Human Rights Campaign’s Voices of Honor:

A National Campaign To Repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Courage Campaign:

Mr. President: Don’t wait.  Don’t delay.  End “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” now.

UPDATE: A post over at NCLR talks about the changes they are thinking of making to DADT and how quick implementation is key to successfully repealing it.  Like I said, it needs to be repealed as quickly as possible!

“The evidence is overwhelming that a quick turnaround on policy change minimizes disruptions to unit cohesion and morale,” he said. “If this is the goal, there should be no slow-rolling of the implementation process.” Frank pointed to the 1993 Rand Corporation report on implementing gay service that stated that openly gay service was entirely workable, but that a successful new policy must be “decided upon and implemented as quickly as possible” to avoid anxiety and uncertainty in the field. It said it was crucial “to convey a new policy that ends discrimination as simply as possible and to impose the minimum of changes on personnel.” Rand then outlined a Standard of Professional Conduct to guide interpersonal behavior that emphasized a uniform code of behavior for all service members.