US military allows openly gay recruits

The military has said it will accept openly gay recruits for the first time in US history, even as it tries to slow a bid to abolish its ban on gays serving openly. At least two service members discharged for being gay began the process to re-enlist after the Pentagon's announcement on Tuesday. The new requirement brings down the barriers built by an institution long resistant and sometimes hostile to gays. On Tuesday Virginia Phillips, a California judge who overturned the 17-year "don't ask, don't tell" policy last week, rejected the government's latest bid to halt her order telling the military to stop enforcing the law. The US defence department said it would comply with Phillips' order and had frozen any discharge cases. Cynthia Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said recruiters had been given top-level guidance in mid-October to accept applicants who say they are gay. She said recruiters have been told to inform potential recruits that the moratorium on enforcement of the policy could be reversed at any time, if the ruling is appealed or the court grants a stay.