Defense Secretary Robert Gates today called the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy "very restrictive" and said the Pentagon is investigating "if there's a more humane way to apply [Don't Ask, Don't Tell] until it gets changed," AFP reports:
"The Pentagon boss said he discussed the issue last week with US President Barack Obama and that there also has been discussion among senior military and legal counsel about possible changes in how they apply the law, which he described as 'very restrictive.' The defense secretary said one possible modification might be consider
the circumstances under which a service member is 'outed' in
determining whether or not he or she must leave the military. Gates offered as an example 'when we're given information from someone
with vengeance in mind or blackmail, somebody who has been jilted. 'If somebody is outed by a third party, does that force us to take action?' he said."
Added Gates: "We're talking about how do we move forward on this, achieve this objective which is changing the policy."
