Obama to discuss rule on gays in military (SOTU Wednesday)

[Duncan Grant]

During his 2008 campaign for the presidency, Obama vowed to end the rule discriminating against gays and he renewed that pledge in a speech last year.

"We were told by the Pentagon that they expected the president to say something in the State of the Union on it," said Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, referring to the speech Obama will deliver on Wednesday evening to a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

But Levin added: "I have no idea" what Obama will say.

The rule, which dates to the presidency of Bill Clinton, requires homosexuals to keep quiet about their true sexual orientation if they want to be in the U.S. military. It also stops recruiters or commanders from asking members of the armed forces whether they are gay.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60O5R520100125