Obama Promises End to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Again.

President Obama, echoing many of the claims he made on the campaign trail, promised at a Human Rights Campaign gala Saturday to overturn “don’t ask, don’t tell” and called for “full [legal] equality” for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and an end to anti-gay discrimination. On Sunday, thousands descended on Washington in a march whose organizers said the LGBT community will not accept a piecemeal approach to civil rights. — JCL

The Los Angeles Times:

President Obama made sweeping pledges Saturday before gay and lesbian activists, promising to overturn the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and work to undo the law that prevents the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.

Obama, addressing a gala dinner hosted by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, said he would work for “full equality” across the board. Although there have been advances in gay rights, Obama said, there are “still laws to change and hearts to open.”

The president, who has made similar pledges in the past, did not spell out a timetable for these initiatives, but he told the audience that they eventually would view “these years as a time when we put a stop to discrimination against gays and lesbians.”

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