The first major legislative push to repeal DADT during the Obama administration was advanced by the US House of Representatives and Senate Armed Services Committee in May 2010. The repeal was included as an amendment to the Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2009 before the House. The legislation resulted from a compromise between Gates and Obama which delayed the repeal until after the DOD was able to complete a review of the ultimate effects of ending DADT. The Senate also considered, and failed to pass, a similar provision in the National Defense Authorization Act for the Fiscal Year 2011 in September 2010.

In December 2010, following prompting from Gates, the House and the Senate passed the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010. Obama signed the legislation on December 22, 2010. The legislation provided that DADT would remain in effect until the president, secretary of defense, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certified that the necessary policies and procedures were in place within the military to implement the repeal.

The repeal of DADT was certified on July 22, 2011, by President Barack Obama, newly sworn-in Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — which put the repeal on track to take effect 60 days later. Despite an eleventh-hour attempt to delay the repeal by Representatives Buck McKeon (R-CA) and Joe Wilson (R-SC), the repeal of DADT took legal effect on September 20, 2011.

The controversy over homosexuals openly serving in the military will likely continue beyond the repeal of DADT. JURIST Guest Columnist Kevin Govern has pointed out that enjoining the enforcement of DADT “[left] untouched the military laws which criminalize some homosexual (and heterosexual) acts, and [kept] intact military leaders’ responsibility to model and to promote ‘exemplary conduct.'” Govern hypothesizes that under this standard of “exemplary conduct,” the military could still criminalize “aberrant, immoral, and violent homosexual and heterosexual acts.”

JURIST Guest Columnist Justin Tanis highlighted the continuing concerns of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, pointing out that the DADT repeal efforts ignored the plight of transgender service members and veterans:

Transgender people can be discharged under military policy as medically unfit if they have been diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder or if they have had genital surgery. There are also military regulations that consider gender non-conformity as “conduct unbecoming” or “conduct prejudicial to good order or discipline.” Wardrobe considered “cross-dressing” can also be considered a violation of uniform policies; this has been applied to servicemembers’ dress on or off base.