WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army general who co-directed a study on ending the ban on gays serving openly in the military says he thinks repeal will prove “pretty inconsequential.”
Gen. Carter Ham says he expects civilians who strongly oppose the move — and some gay rights advocates — will make much of the repeal when it takes effect Tuesday.
But he says that inside the military, the prevailing attitude likely will be business-as-usual, with no call for further debate about the merits of repeal.
Ham is commander of U.S. Africa Command. In 2010, he co-chaired a Pentagon group that studied how to implement a repeal law, which was subsequently passed by Congress in December. President Barack Obama on July 22 certified that the repeal would not harm the military’s ability to fight.
