Most in U.S. want open military service for gays

DALLAS (Reuters) – Most Americans favor allowing gay men and women to serve openly in the U.S. military, a poll released on Monday by the Pew Research Center showed.

The poll findings are the latest to indicate public support for a repeal of the 17-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy banning gays from openly serving in the U.S. military and come a day before a long-awaited Pentagon report on the matter.

In the poll, 58 percent of those surveyed favored allowing gays to serve openly in the military with 27 percent opposed, and the remainder offering no opinion. The nationwide survey of 1,255 adults was conducted from November 4-7.

“These opinions have changed little in recent years. Since 2005 — including three surveys this year — roughly 60 percent have consistently favored permitting homosexuals to serve openly in the military,” Pew said.

The Pentagon is due on Tuesday to release its study on the potential impact of repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The study includes a survey of the attitudes of 400,000 members of the U.S. military.

Partisan divides on the issue are sharp. Among Democrats, 70 percent favored allowing gays to openly serve while the figure for Republicans in the poll was 40 percent. Among conservative Republicans, only 28 percent were in favor of allowing gays to serve openly.

Religious opposition was strongest among white evangelical Protestants, a key base of support for the Republican Party.

The latest findings come as U.S. lawmakers begin a jammed lame-duck session of Congress that could include attempts to repeal the policy before Republicans, many of whom oppose changing the policy, take majority control of the House of Representatives in January after big election gains.

President Barack Obama has pledged to do away with the policy, passed by Congress in 1993.

In 1994, after President Bill Clinton put “don’t ask, don’t tell” in place, 52 percent of the U.S. public favored giving the green light to open military service for gays.

By Ed Stoddard