Do Tell

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hasn't said if he personally favors lifting the military ban on open gays and lesbians serving in the military. The decision is up to Congress, Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have said. But they sure aren't muzzling service members who urge ending the prohibition.
That much is clear from the latest edition of Joint Force Quarterly, for which the Joint Chiefs boss is ultimately reponsible. "It is not time for the administration to reexamine the issue; rather, it is time for the administration to examine how to implement repeal of the ban," wrote U.S. Air Force Col. Om Prakash. He researched the issue while a student at the National Defense University.
Prakash's work won him the "2009 Secretary of Defense National Security Essay Competition."
As Mullen and Gates might have expected, major newspapers learned of the essay. The Boston Globe and The New York Times published pieces pointing to Prakash's piece as a possible indicator of opinion about the ban in the highest reaches of the Pentagon.
The evidence that led Prakash to his conclusion will be familiar to readers of my recently published "Gays in the Military" report. Prakash argues, as did some experts who spoke to me, that a generational shift in attitudes about homosexuality renders opposition to lifting the ban obsolete.
That opposition hasn't vanished, of course. Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, told The Times that Prakash's essay was "one-sided." Donnelly and other supporters of the ban argue that allowing open homosexuals into the service would produce serious disruptions in military life.