Leaked Pentagon Study Finds Few Issues With Lifting Ban On Openly Gay Soldiers

According to the Washington Post, a Pentagon study group has found that there would be minimal effect on the military should DADT be repealed. The WaPo story confirms a similarly leaked report from last week.

More than 70 percent of respondents to a survey sent to active-duty and reserve troops over the summer said the effect of repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy would be positive, mixed or nonexistent, said two sources familiar with the document. The survey results led the report's authors to conclude that objections to openly gay colleagues would drop once troops were able to live and serve alongside them. One source, who has read the report in full, summarized its findings in a series of conversations this week. The source declined to state his position on whether or not to lift the ban, insisting it did not matter. He said he felt compelled to share the information out of concern that groups opposed to ending the ban would mischaracterize the findings. The long, detailed and nuanced report will almost certainly be used by opponents and supporters of repeal legislation to bolster their positions in what is likely to be a heated and partisan congressional debate.

Anticipating a pro-gay result to the study, the Family Research Council is already denouncing the soldiers' questionnaire as flawed. Via press release:

Already, the President's team is leading the spin cycle for the Pentagon's formal report on overturning the policy. As Frank Gaffney wrote in today's Washington Times, "False reports about the study's findings have lately made their way into the press. Specifically, Associated Press reported last week that a survey conducted at the behest of the working group had found significant support in the military for repeal of the homosexual-exclusion statute. In fact, the survey did not ask that question." This is just one of the flash-points FRC details in our new paper on the Pentagon's biased and incomplete survey. Regardless of what the reports show, Congress has an obligation to follow up those results with comprehensive hearings--as they did at least 12 times before the 1993 policy was passed.