Video Transcript:

JOANNE FARYON (Host): The San Diego City Council passed a resolution this week supporting the repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. The policy prohibits those who are openly gay and lesbian from serving in the armed forces. The council voted to back the military readiness enhancement act. The act would outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation. We put Council Member Todd Gloria, who's openly gay, on the record about why City Council approved this resolution.

TODD GLORIA (Council Member): I don't think you can underestimate what it means to have San Diego on the record in this way. We are clearly a military town, our history is linked with our military, our Navy and our Marine Corp. To have this town, in support of repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" I think sends a powerful message to those in the Pentagon, in Congress, and in the White House that the time to repeal this policy has come. The stories are extremely compelling. I think that my colleagues were particularly touched by a woman who explained that it was difficult for her to go on deployments. We here in San Diego are very used to seeing sailors be sent off at the pier side by their families and loved ones. For our lesbian and gay service members, they don't have that luxury. They have to make their goodbyes before they go down to the ship, in way that our heterosexual service members don't have to do. I thought that story was really compelling, particularly when this young woman, who was a former sailor shared that going into combat, it underlined for her that if something happened to her, that her loved, one, her partner, would not be notified, because as far as the Department of Defense knows, she doesn't exist. 

FARYON: Tony Perry, you spent years covering the marines, you've been embedded with them in Iraq and Afghanistan, is this what military personnel want?

TONY PERRY (Los Angeles Times): Actually, there was a public opinion poll done of service members and it suggested that in the rank and file they support dropping "Don't Ask Don't Tell". Don't forget two-thirds of the Marine Corp is under 24 years old. They're the younger generation, for them it's not a big deal. Now, the admirals and the generals they're of an older generation, very socially conservative, particularly when it comes to changing the institutions that they've spent they're lives in. You'll have some disconnect there. This ball is in the court of the secretary of defense, Robert Gates. The president has asked him to look at this, and whether it's time to if not drop, modify "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", which was adopted by the Congress in '93, it all leads to him. If he comes out and says "it's time to move on, it's served its purpose", that's one thing. If he comes in and says "too complicated at this point" then I think that the support for dropping it fades away. So all roads lead to Robert Gates. I agree with Todd Gloria, I think the City of San Diego, I was surprised, frankly, when they voted 7-0. I think Tony Young, Councilmember, took a walk and wasn't there that day. The Mayor Jerry Sanders supported the resolution, although he's not part of the council. I think it does say something, San Diego is not known, this is not Berkeley, this is not San Francisco, San Diego doesn't lead these social movements, it sort of follows along. Now San Diego has done this, and being the premiere military town in the country, I think it speaks volumes.

FARYON: Ricky, we were the last major city in California to pass this, yet we speak with the authentic military voice. So what do you make of that, the connection?

RICKY YOUNG (San Diego Union Tribune): I think San Diego is coming around in a lot of ways on some of these social issues to a place it might not have been a few years ago. Symbolically, you saw the mayor come around on gay marriage. They have two openly gay elected officials, both of whom made eloquent speeches on this issue this week. Some people will criticize them, shouldn't you be filling potholes, or dealing with your budget deficit, but I think there is a place for local governments to, if nothing else, it helps us in the media, to know where they stand on these issues for if they run for a state or national office or what have you. It tells the people, it gives them  a more well-rounded picture of where their city is coming from. They might feel like if they agree with this that they're represented by their council in the broader sphere.

FARYON: I do want to throw out some local statistics, according to the Legal Defense Fund. This is an agency that helps gay and lesbian military personnel. Eighteen marines from Pendleton and four from MCAS Miramar were expelled based on this "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy since Obama became president. We spoke about where all roads lead to, do they also lead to the President. This was a campaign promise. Is he doing enough?

PERRY: Well, that depends on who you talk to. The advocates who supported him and were encouraged when he said during the campaign that he wanted "Don't Ask, Don't Tell to be dropped, they don't think he's moving fast enough. He could, by executive fiat, end this. He has not opted to do that, he is moving more slowly, he has asked the Pentagon to take a look at it, he's letting them run cover if you will, if indeed they say come back and change it. Those numbers are extrapolations of what we have seen. That is about twelve thousand they say, personnel that have been booted out since '93. Former President Clinton has said that the problem is that the policy was never fully implemented, that there were cases and are cases where people's private lives are being investigated even though they haven't intruded on the workplace at all. We could look for a midpoint where Gates says, "lets keep this policy, but the real policy where peoples lives are not investigated unless somehow it has intruded on the work place."