President Obama Calls On Congress To End “Discriminatory Policy” Prohibiting Openly Gay Service Personal, Pentagon Report Suggests Opposition To Repeal “Tend To Overstate Negative Consequences And Underestimate U.S. Military Ability To Adapt Diversity Reflective Of American Society At Large,” Anti-Gay Violence Continues To Climb In Senegal

President Obama released a statement Tuesday calling on the Senate to take immediate action to overturn the American military policy prohibiting openly gay service members, the president saying the just released Pentagon study confirms that a majority of those in the military do not have a problem serving alongside openly gay colleagues, the Associated Press reporting that Obama said it is now the moment for Congress to end the “discriminatory policy,” adding that he is “absolutely confident” United States troops would be able to adapt to the change “in a responsible manner that ensures our military strength and national security.”

Earlier, the Pentagon released the long-awaited study, CNN reporting that it states although a repeal of the 17 year old ban known as “don’t ask, don’t tell” would present “some limited and isolated disruption to unit cohesion and retention,” however those effects would not be permanent or pervasive, the report concluding "The general lesson we take from ... transformational experiences in history is that in matters of personnel change within the military, predictions and surveys tend to overestimate negative consequences, and underestimate the U.S. military's ability to adapt and incorporate within it ranks the diversity that is reflective of American society at large."

A new report conducted by the advocacy group Human Rights Watch reveals that violence against gay men in Senegal has dramatically increased in the last two years and is likely to continue to rise in the months prior to a presidential election in 2012, according to Bloomberg. Senegal is one of thirty-eight African countries that criminalize homosexuality. According to the Human Rights Watch “Incidents of mob beatings, arbitrary arrests, police brutality and public discrimination and lynching were reported to the New York-based group and published in a report today released in the Dakar, the Senegalese capital,” Boris Dittrich, the acting director for the Human Rights Watch’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights program, adding that “When elections are coming up and politicians are under scrutiny, all of a sudden there is more focus on homosexuality, because that’s a very easy target.”