Senate Democratic leadership and top military brass are at odds about the best way to proceed on the path toward ending “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and LGBT advocates are siding with the military.

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Tuesday that passing a moratorium on discharges under the policy was a “more realistic goal” than passing a full repeal measure.

But testimony from military leadership on both Tuesday and Wednesday demonstrated that the secretaries and service chiefs would prefer an all-or-nothing approach rather than an interim step like a moratorium.

“Keep it simple,” said Gen. James Conway, head of the Marines, testifying before the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday. “I would encourage you to either change the law or not, but in the process, half measures would only be confusing in the end.”

Conway endorsed the plan set forth by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who has appointed a working group to formulate how to implement “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal over the next year. During testimony earlier this month, Gates said he supported President Barack Obama’s decision to end the policy. “The question before us is not whether the military prepares to make this change, but how we best prepare for it,” he said.

Conway’s sentiments mirrored those of the Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead and Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey Jr. — both of whom said the Pentagon review should be completed before there’s an interruption of discharges.

Casey told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday he would recommend against halting discharges while the implementation plan is finished.

“It would complicate the whole process that Secretary Gates set up,” he said. “We would be put in the position of actually implementing it while we’re studying the implementation.”

Pro-repeal LGBT groups were quick to point out that the service chiefs
uniformly lined up behind the plan initiated by Gates and endorsed
by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.