DADT Panel Promises Fair Study

At a House panel meeting, leaders of the study on 'don't ask, don't tell" promised an honest assessment of whether allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly might distract troops in battle.

"Military readiness and effectiveness must retain primacy here," Gen. Carter Ham, head of U.S. Army Forces Europe and a coleader of the study, told the panel. "That is what you expect of us, that's what the nation expects of us."

Wednesday's hearing was the first in the yearlong debate at the Pentagon and in Congress on whether the military should repeal the 17-year-old law that bans service members from "acknowledging they are gay or engaging in homosexual behavior," the Associated Press reported.

"I would ask those who oppose repeal to join us on the right side of history," Rep. Susan Davis, chair of the House Armed Services personnel subcommittee said.

Pentagon general legal counsel Jeh Johnson said he anticipates the review will consider all aspects of "don't ask, don't tell," including prohibitions on oral and anal sex.