By William H. McMichael (MRE Member) and Brendan McGarry – Military Times staff writers
When Adm. Mike Mullen stunned the Senate Armed Services committee earlier this month by saying it’s time to stop kicking gay service members out just for being gay, he also acknowledged that the Defense Department is working in a data vacuum on this issue.
“I do not know what the impact will be, and I do not know what the implementation requirements will be,” Mullen said. “There’s very little objective data on this.”
Now there is.
In the most comprehensive survey yet on service members’ attitudes about gays in the military, more than 3,000 Military Times readers contacted randomly by e-mail and through fliers placed in random newsstand copies late last fall offer a clear glimpse about attitudes and experiences in today’s military.
