With the fight to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell approaching a critical turning point, Senators Lieberman and Collins have called on the Pentagon to expedite its DADT report. Leaks from the report, due December 1, suggest that it will corroborate what experts have been saying all along in the DADT debate – that the policy could be repealed “with only minimal and isolated incidents of risk to the current war efforts.”

DADT supporters would have you believe that repeal is all but dead. That is far from the truth. Repeal is still very much within our reach. Contact your Senators and Majority Leader Reid, the Department of Defense, and the White House. Thank our supporters and urge them to stand up and speak out. Urge the opposition to change course.

Most of all, urge that the fate of repeal not be sealed until the Pentagon report is released. We have every reason to believe that good news is coming. We must keep fighting.

An excerpt from the Lieberman-Collins letter appears below.

Some of our colleagues in the Senate share our view about the importance of passing a defense bill, but they are awaiting the release of the working group’s report before agreeing to begin debate on the bill. We are hopeful that release of the report and the opportunity for our colleagues to review its findings and recommendations will help inform their understanding and alleviate some concerns they may have regarding the military’s capacity to implement repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in a manner that is consistent with our armed forces’ standards of readiness and effectiveness, unit cohesion, and recruiting and retention. Given the limited amount of time remaining in the 111th Congress, the soonest possible release of the working group’s report could therefore be instrumental in allowing the defense bill to move forward.