This one's short, but picked it up on CNN.
Gates eases ban on gays in the military.
The following appears to be the most important point of the admittedly short article:
Among other things, Gates said the Pentagon is raising the threshold for what constitutes an appropriate level of information necessary to launch a "credible inquiry" into allegations of homosexual behavior.
The change is reflection of "common sense" and "common decency," Gates said.
I hope I can find a longer article later / etc, but figured I'd post it.
To me, this is a good first step, but of course it's no substitute for getting rid of DADT altogether. Hopefully Tammy Baldwin is right and they do have the votes to reverse DADT.
Politico (yes, I know, one of our favorite sites...) has more:
The changes rolled out in a Pentagon press briefing Thursday will apply to all open and future cases, but only Congress can repeal the current law barring gays from serving openly.
Better details than CNN:
Now, the Pentagon won’t entertain anonymous complaints against members of the military, requiring third parties to give information under oath. It will also place “special scrutiny” on third parties who may be trying to harm the accused. And the Pentagon will only allow more experienced officers to initiate claims or to actually “separate” gays from the military.
A bit more about the rules:
The rules for what information can be used in a case will change too. Now, the Pentagon will outlaw discharges based on confidential information provided to lawyers, the clergy, psychotherapists and doctors. And information picked up during investigations of domestic or physical abuse or security clearance proceedings is also out of bounds.
The changes are being applied after a 45-day review of how service-members are discharged for their sexual orientation. The Pentagon’s yearlong study of how to implement full repeal is ongoing.
There's more, but this seems to be the "heart" of the article. I hope this is part of the momentum to get DADT fully repealed, and I'd of course prefer it to be sooner rather than later.