[ti:Let Gays Serve Openly]
[ar:Steve Ember]
[al:IN THE NEWS]
[by:www.51voa.com]
[00:00.00]This is IN THE NEWS 
[00:05.32]in VOA Special English.
[00:08.49]Last week President Obama 
[00:10.98]again called for ending a ban 
[00:13.76]against people in the military 
[00:16.07]who are openly homosexual. 
[00:19.07]That was one of 
[00:20.36]his campaign promises. 
[00:22.56]This week America's 
[00:24.53]top military officer 
[00:26.42]expressed support 
[00:28.17]for the proposal 
[00:29.42]at a hearing before the 
[00:31.16]Senate Armed Services Committee. 
[00:34.00]Admiral Mike Mullen
[00:35.94]is chairman of the 
[00:37.29]Joint Chiefs of Staff.
[00:38.63]"It is my personal belief 
[00:40.08]that allowing gays 
[00:41.57]and lesbians to serve openly 
[00:42.99]would be the right thing to do. 
[00:44.59]No matter how I look 
[00:46.18]at this issue, 
[00:47.03]I cannot escape being troubled 
[00:48.83]by the fact that we have 
[00:50.47]in place a policy 
[00:51.76]which forces young men and women 
[00:54.25]to lie about who they are 
[00:55.94]in order to defend 
[00:57.09]their fellow citizens."
[00:59.19]Defense Secretary Robert Gates 
[01:01.08]also expressed support 
[01:03.14]for ending the policy known 
[01:05.48]as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
[01:07.62]President Bill Clinton 
[01:10.09]proposed it seventeen years ago. 
[01:12.82]The law, passed by Congress, 
[01:15.67]does not prevent gays and lesbians 
[01:18.81]from serving in the military. 
[01:21.19]But it does require them not 
[01:24.23]to tell anyone 
[01:25.62]about their sexual preference. 
[01:28.42]Estimates of the number 
[01:30.61]of troops dismissed 
[01:32.30]under the policy are 
[01:34.09]as high as 
[01:35.07]thirteen thousand five hundred.
[01:37.83]A USA Today/Gallup 
[01:40.94]Poll last May showed that 
[01:43.25]fifty-eight percent of 
[01:45.16]conservatives and Republicans 
[01:47.73]supported letting gays 
[01:50.08]and lesbians serve openly.
[01:52.87]But Senator John McCain, 
[01:55.36]a Navy veteran, 
[01:56.91]is among Republican lawmakers 
[01:59.49]against ending the policy.
[02:02.38]"Has this policy been ideal? 
[02:03.48]No, it has not. 
[02:05.33]But it has been effective. 
[02:07.48]It has helped to balance 
[02:08.92]a potentially disruptive tension 
[02:10.38]between the desires of a minority 
[02:12.82]and the broader interests 
[02:14.72]of our all-volunteer force."
[02:16.29]Secretary Gates said 
[02:17.88]he has launched a year-long 
[02:20.24]study of the possible effects
[02:22.77]of a change in the law. 
[02:24.91]But he gave the Defense Department 
[02:27.78]forty-five days to think of ways 
[02:29.68]to enforce the existing law 
[02:33.78]"in a more humane and fair manner."
[02:37.92]In California, a federal judge 
[02:41.66]is studying the evidence 
[02:43.90]in a trial over a ban against 
[02:46.84]same-sex marriage in that state. 
[02:50.49]Fifty-two percent of California 
[02:53.63]voters amended the state 
[02:56.03]constitution in November 
[02:58.07]of two thousand eight.
[03:00.02]In the trial, two same-sex couples 
[03:03.56]argue that the state ban violates 
[03:07.21]equal protection rights 
[03:09.10]under the United States Constitution. 
[03:12.69]The judge is expected to hear 
[03:15.59]closing arguments next month. 
[03:18.72]The case is likely 
[03:20.11]to reach the Supreme Court.
[03:22.26]A survey last April 
[03:25.11]by the Pew Forum on Religion 
[03:27.65]and Public Life found that 
[03:30.40]fifty-four percent of Americans 
[03:33.04]opposed gay marriage. 
[03:35.84]Thirty-five percent said 
[03:38.39]they supported it.
[03:40.28]Thirty of the fifty states 
[03:42.84]have changed their constitutions 
[03:45.14]to ban same-sex marriage. 
[03:48.12]Five states permit it:
[03:50.61]Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, 
[03:53.99]New Hampshire and Vermont. 
[03:56.84]And same-sex marriage 
[03:58.93]could soon become legal 
[04:00.88]in the city of Washington.
[04:02.82]Several countries, mostly in Europe, 
[04:07.38]offer different levels 
[04:09.27]of marriage rights 
[04:10.72]to same-sex couples.
[04:13.02]On Thursday, President Obama 
[04:15.80]condemned an anti-homosexuality bill 
[04:19.82]in Uganda that proposes death 
[04:22.43]for some crimes. 
[04:24.37]He spoke at the National Prayer 
[04:27.17]Breakfast in Washington. 
[04:28.71]The yearly event is organized 
[04:32.05]by a Christian group 
[04:33.89]known as The Family. 
[04:36.30]Activists say Ugandan 
[04:39.08]politician David Bahati, 
[04:41.33]who proposed the legislation, 
[04:43.47]is a member of that group.
[04:45.96]And that's IN THE NEWS 
[04:48.36]in VOA Special English, 
[04:51.15]written by Brianna Blake.
[04:53.29]I'm Steve Ember.