New York Times Urges Obama to Consider Executive Order on Gays

Growing Chorus Calling For Swift Presidential Action

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., June 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The New York Times
editorial page has called on President Obama to consider signing an executive
order suspending the military's gay ban, urging him to "see if there is indeed
any action he could take on his own."

Referring to Obama's stroke-of-the-pen authority to issue stop-loss orders
which prevent service members from leaving the military, the Times states,
"How much better to use the power to prevent the loss of gay service members
eager to keep serving."

The Times joins a growing chorus calling for an executive action including
Congressman Rush Holt, Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese, Los
Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center CEO Lorri Jean, and Knights Out, an
organization of West Point graduates co-founded by Dan Choi, the Arabic
translator about to be discharged because he's gay.

The idea of ending the ban by executive order gained momentum after the
release last month of a Palm Center study showing that the president has the
authority to suspend "don't ask, don't tell" via a stroke of the pen. Before
that time, many argued that only Congress or the courts could lift the ban on
service by openly gay troops.

Dr. Nathaniel Frank said that today's endorsement increases the pressure on
the White House to take action. "The administration is probably coming to
believe that this issue is not going away," he said. Frank is author of
"Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America"
and senior research fellow at the Palm Center.

The Palm Center is a research institute at the University of California, Santa
Barbara. The Center uses rigorous social science to inform public discussions
of controversial social issues, enabling policy outcomes to be informed more
by evidence than by emotion. Its data-driven approach is premised on the
notion that the public makes wise choices on social issues when high-quality
information is available. For more information, visit
www.palmcenter.ucsb.edu.

SOURCE Michael D. Palm Center

Indra Lusero, Assistant Director, Palm Center, +1-805-893-5664,
lusero@palmcenter.ucsb.edu