Sen. Barack Obama says if elected president he won't require that his appointees to the Joint Chiefs of Staff support allowing gays to serve openly in the military.
The Democratic presidential front-runner told The Advocate, a gay magazine, that he wants to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays, which was instituted during the Clinton administration.
He said his priority for the Joint Chiefs will be that they make decisions to strengthen the military and keep the country safe, not their position on the policy.
"I would never make this a litmus test for the Joint Chiefs of Staff," Obama said in an interview with The Advocate.
"But I think there's increasing recognition within the
Armed Forces that this is a counterproductive strategy," he said.
"We're spending large sums of money to kick highly qualified gays or lesbians out of our military, some of whom possess specialties like Arab-language capabilities that we desperately need. That doesn't make us more safe."
clipped from: www.cnn.com