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A new study to be released by the Palm Center on Tuesday will show that foreign militaries that transitioned quickly to allow openly gay members to serve experienced no significant disruptions.

The study from the research group at the University of California, Santa Barbara arrives as Pentagon leaders contend they would need a year or longer to implement changes to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell policy.”

According to The New York Times, “the 151-page study, which updates existing studies on gay service members in Britain, Canada, Australia, South Africa and other countries, offers the first broad look at the issue in foreign militaries since Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called for an end to ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ earlier this month.”

The study is authored principally by Nathaniel Frank (pictured), who wrote the book Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America. It contradicts repeal opponents who say a change in policy would undermine troop morale or necessitate separate facilities for gay soldiers.

“On implementation, the study said that most countries made the change swiftly, within a matter of months and with what it termed little disruption to the armed services,” reports the Times. “Mr. Frank said the study did not look at what happened if the change was implemented gradually because, he said, ‘i don’t think any of the militaries tried it.’”

Desperate Housewives’s Katherine Mayfair (Dana Delany) was shocked to get a kiss from Wisteria Lane newcomer Robin Gallagher ( Julie Benz) on Sunday night’s episode… and even more shocked to find that she liked it.

Robin, a “card-carrying” lesbian and ex-stripper, kissed Katherine, to the shock of two men at dinner. Afterward, Robin and Katherine talked about whether Katherine might seriously want to “expand the pool” of her dating options.

California assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal has introduced a bill that would eliminate a 43-year-old section of state code that mandates a search for a “cure” for homosexuality.

According to the Sacramento Bee, the bill targets a section of California’s Welfare and Institutions Code placed into law in 1967 that “requires the Department of Mental Health to ‘plan, conduct and cause to be conducted scientific research into the causes and cures of sexual deviation, including deviations conducive to sex crimes against children, and the causes and cures of homosexuality, and into methods of identifying potential sex offenders.’”

While it remains unclear how seriously the Department ever followed the order, a spokeswoman for the Department told the Sacramento Bee that any research that did occur would have ended decades ago.

Lowenthal, prompted by advocacy group Equality California, wants to make sure any trace of the code is eradicated.

The nation’s top two defense officials called Tuesday for an end to the 16-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, a major step toward allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the U.S. military for the first time.

“No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens,” Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said it was his personal belief that “allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do.”

Mullen is the first sitting Joint Chiefs chairman to support a repeal of the policy, and the forceful expression of his views seemed to catch not only gay-rights leaders but Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is the committee’s chairman, by surprise.

Levin, a longtime proponent of ending the law, told Mullen his testimony was “eloquent.”

In 1993, Gen. Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs, opposed allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly but supported “don’t ask, don’t tell” as the compromise was passed by Congress.

Under the policy, officers aren’t supposed to inquire about sexual orientation or seek to know it, while service members are to keep quiet about it.

A new Daily Kos/Research 2000 delivers some extreme results on how self-identified Republicans feel about gay rights. Vast majorities of Republicans said they do not feel that gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve in the military, marry, receive federal or state benefits, or teach in public schools.

According to the Daily Kos, the poll was conducted by calling 2,003 self-identified Republicans nationwide between January 20 and 31. Notwithstanding the wisdom of putting gay rights up for debate in a poll, here are the relevant questions and results:

Should openly gay men and women be allowed to serve in the military?

Yes 26%
No 55%
Not Sure 19%

Should same sex couples be allowed to marry?

Yes 7%
No 77%
Not Sure 16%

Should gay couples receive any state or federal benefits?

Yes 11%
No 68%
Not Sure 21%

Should openly gay men and women be allowed to teach in public schools?

Yes 8%
No 73%
Not Sure 19%

The U.S. Tax Court issued a highly anticipated decision about gender reassignment surgery on Tuesday, ruling that treatment is tax deductible.

The decision, O’Donnabhain v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, reasoned that gender identity disorder qualifies as medical care and is tax deductible. The case involved Rhiannon O’Donnabhain, a 64-year-old transgender woman disallowed a $5,000 tax deduction because the IRS said that her gender reassignment surgery was cosmetic.

According to a news release from Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, which represented O’Donnabhain, the decision sets a precedent.

“In an opinion reviewed by the full bench, the United States Tax Court affirmed that medical treatments for GID, including surgery and hormone therapy, are deductible medical expenses,” said GLAD. “Moreover, the court stated that the IRS’s position that such treatment is cosmetic in nature ‘is at best a superficial characterization of the circumstances that is thoroughly rebutted by the medical evidence.’”

The New York Times on Monday delivers an article about some of the forces converging around the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the past year, and reports that the Defense Department will announce that it is suspending some discharges of gay military members during the debate over the policy.

According to the Times, at the Congressional hearing on the policy on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates will announce a halt in discharges of service members whose sexual orientation is revealed by third parties or jilted partners.

“On Tuesday, in the first Congressional hearing on the issue in 17 years, Mr. Gates and Admiral Mullen will unveil the Pentagon’s initial plans for carrying out a repeal, which requires an act of Congress,” reports the Times. “Gay rights leaders say they expect Mr. Gates to announce in the interim that the Defense Department will not take action to discharge service members whose sexual orientation is revealed by third parties or jilted partners, one of the most onerous aspects of the law. Pentagon officials had no comment.”

The article also states that Obama, who pledged to repeal the policy during his presidential campaign, delayed acting on repeal in 2009 because of two wars and his desire not to distract from health care reform. He decided to make repeal a priority in 2010.

Following President Obama’s State of the Union address, Republican Sen. John McCain issued a statement saying he disagreed with the president’s pledge to repeal”don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“In his State of the Union address, President Obama asked Congress to repeal the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. I am immensely proud of, and thankful for, every American who wears the uniform of our country, especially at a time of war, and I believe it would be a mistake to repeal the policy.

“This successful policy has been in effect for over fifteen years, and it is well understood and predominantly supported by our military at all levels. We have the best trained, best equipped, and most professional force in the history of our country, and the men and women in uniform are performing heroically in two wars. At a time when our Armed Forces are fighting and sacrificing on the battlefield, now is not the time to abandon the policy.”