When the co-chairs of the Pentagon’s DADT “Working Group” testified before Congress, they promised to develop a system of consulting with gay members without inadvertently outing them. “We envision outreach through social media so that a wide variety of individuals both within the Department of Defense and without who will have views on this matter have an opportunity for their voice to be heard,” General Carter Ham, one of the working group’s co-chairs said.

Since March, the group has conducted public discussions and met with chaplains, Reserve Flag Officers and Sailors, veteran organizations, foreign military leaders who allow gay servicemembers to serve openly and assorted service members and their families. Recently, the Defense Department established a temporary website that would allow servicemembers to comment on the policy. It’s unclear, however, if the comments can be traced back to their source or if gay members could be outed when they reveal their orientation:

The recently created site — www.defense.gov/dadt — is accessible only by using a DOD-issued Common Access Card, which most family members don’t have. And use of the CAC card means that any comments are potentially traceable back to their source. The website urges users to be “open and honest” with their responses. But they also are reminded “don’t use your name or the names of others … The ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Law’ is still in effect.”….The website offers a blank “comment box” but no guidelines regarding what kinds of opinions are being sought. [...]

All comments will be reviewed by a third-party contractor, who will take out any names or other potential identifiers provided in the online comment box before submitting them to the DOD working group reviewing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, Smith said. Still, a user agreement at the site warns that the working group “cannot guarantee the confidentiality of the information you provide.” Using a CAC to get to the site creates a digital log-in record. But Smith said DOD won’t be “going back through the system to identify anyone who has given us this feedback.”

A message on the site indicates that a “confidential mechanism” for offering feedback is still under construction.

The group is scheduled to produce a final report by December 1, but some have questioned the purpose or utility of soliciting opinions altogether, since “It’s not usual for us to go to the military and to have necessarily them believe that their personal feelings are going to determine the policy that moves forward.” If anything, previous surveys have found that a growing number of servicemembers have no problem serving with openly gay or lesbian troops.

Incidentally, the Center for American Progress Action Fund has also launched a campaign collecting video testimonials from gay and straight servicemembers and veterans, speaking to the failure of the DADT ban. Submit a video here.

Former Assistant Secretary of Defense and CAP/CAPAF Senior Fellow Larry Korb — who recently issued a report urging the administration to expedite the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — has penned a new column this morning criticizing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates for trying to delay Congressional action on DADT until after the Pentagon completes its review of the policy. “The Pentagon working group should lead the process of informing how the military should go about implementing the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’” Korb writes. But “Congress must also move forward now to provide the legal authority to ensure that the law is repealed this year and implemented upon successful completion of the working group’s study.”

In other words, repeal legislation can facilitate the needs of the study group and the two entities can work concurrently to end the policy this year:

Consulting our troops should certainly be a component of the process to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” but leaving the decision up to the troops alone would be unprecedented, and in fact, would undermine the chain of command. Our allies’ experiences repealing similar bans, as well as our own experience in implementing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” suggest that a drawn-out process is unnecessary and that the military’s recommendations do not need to be completed before Congress exercises its legal authority to overturn the law.

Three of the United States’ closest allies—Israel, Canada, and the United Kingdom—have successfully removed all restrictions on gays and lesbians in their armed forces since the early 1990s. All three countries made quick, successful transitions to policies of open service…Contrary to what Gates and Mullen set forth in their letter, our allies’ experiences suggest that repeal will be a straightforward process and that a swift policy reversal sends the appropriate signal that both uniformed and civilian military leaders are on board with the decision.

Korb also points out that that Congress led the way on DADT when the policy was first implemented in 1993. “The United States adopted ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ in 1993, the bill had passed both houses of Congress by October, but the Pentagon did not issue final rules on how to implement the policy until December. And DOD was still making adjustments to the implementation policy in early 1994. As this experience suggests, DOD will still have ample opportunity to weigh in on the measures needed to implement the repeal if Congress acts to overturn this damaging policy before the Pentagon working group has finished its study.”

Indeed, it’s unclear what Gates and the White House are so afraid of. Since the working group is studying how best to repeal the policy and not whether it should be repealed, the administration should learn form the experiences of our allies and move quickly, not slow walk the process. That, after all, is what’s best for the military.