This past weekend, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Republican Senator and former Presidential candidate John McCain his views on the military's Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell policy.

...But in all due respect, right now the military is functioning extremely well in very difficult conditions. We have to have an assessment on recruitment, on retention and all the other aspects of the impact on our military if we change the policy. In my view, and I know that a lot of people don’t agree with that, the policy has been working and I think it’s been working well.

No, Mr. McCain, it hasn't been working well.

This past March, a group of West Point graduates came out of the closet in solidarity and denounced the Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell policy.

Thirty-eight graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., came out of the closet Monday with an offer to help their alma mater educate future Army leaders on the need to accept and honor the sacrifices of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender troops.

“Knights Out” wants to serve as a connection between gay troops and Army administrators, particularly at West Point, to provide an “open forum” for communication between gay West Point graduates and their fellow alumni and to serve in an advisory role for West Point leaders in the eventuality — which the group believes is both “imminent and inevitable” — that the law and policy collectively known as “don’t ask, don’t tell” are repealed by Congress.

“We’re publicly announcing our sexuality, our orientation,” said 1st Lt. Dan Choi, a National Guardsman with the 1st Bn., 69th Infantry, based in Manhattan. “It’s just one part of who we are in saying that we are standing to be counted.”

A month and a half later, 1st Lt. Dan Choi was dismissed from the military under that same policy. Lt. Choi is an Iraq war vet and Arabic translator. He made it clear that he was willing to be deployed again...and still they dismissed him. Because he is gay.

This week Choi received a letter citing his public admission of homosexuality as a cause for discharging him from the Army, stating that his actions “negatively affected the good order and discipline of the New York Army National Guard.”

In 2008, Barack Obama gave an interview to The Advocate wherein he discussed his views of Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell.

...But I think there’s increasing recognition within the Armed Forces that this is a counterproductive strategy -- ya know, we’re spending large sums of money to kick highly qualified gays or lesbians out of our military, some of whom possess specialties like Arab-language capabilities that we desperately need. That doesn’t make us more safe, and what I want are members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who are making decisions based on what strengthens our military and what is going to make us safer, not ideology.

Lt. Choi had those "Arab-language capabilities"...and still he was dismissed. For being gay.

Earlier this year, Sandy Tsao, an army officer based out of St. Louis, MO came out and wrote a letter to newly sworn in President Obama. This month she received a handwritten letter from President Barack Obama. The President said that he was "committed to changing our current policy" but cautioned that it "will take some time to complete (partly because it needs Congressional action)". Tsao's last day in the military will be May 19. She, too, is being dismissed from the military.

In January, the Army fired 11 soldiers for violating the don't-ask-don't-tell policy. This is in the wake of more than 100 retired generals and admirals calling for the repeal of the policy. Since the policy was created in 1994, more than 13,000 military personnel have been dismissed from the military.

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network has various petitions you can sign to prod the government into doing what is right. They provide an easy way to write to the House, the Senate, or even President Obama.