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Update, 9:39 p.m.: CNN's report on the hearing.

House Democrats will hear arguments for and against Don't Ask, Don't Tell this afternoon in the first hearing on the controversial military policy in fifteen years.

The idea is to bring the issue back into the spotlight, amidst increasing public opposition of Bill Clinton's "compromise", The Advocate reports. A Washington Post-ABC News poll has found 75% of respondents favor openly gay soldiers in the military. That number was 62% in 2001 and 44% in 1993.

Doing away with the law, as recommended recently by a group of researchers in California, isn't going to happen until after January 20th, according to California Rep. Ellen Tauscher. Her bill to go against the status quo has 133 co-sponsors.

"We need a new president in order to get this passed," Tauscher said, hoping he goes by the name of Barack Obama.

The hearing, to be chaired by California's Susan Davis, will be made up of three retired military officials wanting to overturn Don't Ask, Don't Tell and two witnesses who'd prefer it to stay in effect. No current officials were invited because, Tauscher says, "it's a waste of time... they always have the same answer."

Follow the law, follow the law, follow the law. Sometimes you have to change the law.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell prohibits military officers from asking a soldier if they're gay and a soldier from openly expressing their homosexuality. It was signed into law on November 30, 1993 and went into effect on January 29, 1994. 11,704 military personnel were discharged because of their orientations between 1994 and 2006, according to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

There are people in this country who aren't fazed by that number? 11,704 Americans were booted from service because they happened to be sexually attracted to members of the same sex and that's OK because why? Being gay is gross? Immoral? Unacceptable?

No. No. No. If a gay soldier has committed a CRIME - you know, shooting or raping someone - by all means, reward them with a dishonorable discharge. But kicking them out on the sole basis of sexual orientation, without a second look at their record of service, is a crime against humanity.

And to think our military complains they aren't meeting annual recruitment goals.

(Photo credit: www.dolfilms.org)