Seven years ago this week, retired U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in support of ending the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that kept gay and lesbian service members from serving openly.
Then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, Mullen said “allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do” and ultimately “comes down to integrity theirs as individuals and ours as an institution.” The policy was fully repealed 19 months later.
On Monday, Mullen once again stood up for the integrity of an institution and its people, and the right thing to do, penning a candid and forceful op-ed in The New York Times calling for the removal of Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, from his atypical role on the National Security Council one whose presence, Mullen wrote, creates a situation “that is unhealthy for the republic.”
