Although confidential surveys show thousands are serving, officially homosexuals are still banned from military service unless they are willing to comply with a hastily constructed "don't ask, don't tell" policy that Congress passed in 1993.

As a candidate, Obama promised to be a fierce advocate for gay rights. As president, he is still an advocate, but fierce? Not so much. In fact, not at all.

Some of his supporters in the gay rights community are getting mightily impatient. Maverick conservative and openly gay blogger Andrew Sullivan endorsed Obama's candidacy, but you could not tell from his review of Obama's Oct. 11 speech to the Human Rights Campaign, the world's largest gay political group. "Much worse than I expected," he wrote on The Atlantic's website. "[The president] failed every test" - by offering no specifics.

I appreciate Sullivan's point. I used to think that allowing gays in the military would weaken national security. I have since discovered how much our national security would be weakened without them.

Attitudes about equal rights for gays appear to have evolved within the military as they have in the civilian world. A 2006 Zogby International poll found 73 percent of the military personnel were comfortable with the idea of serving with gays and lesbians. About one in four U. S. troops who served in Afghanistan or Iraq told Zogby pollsters they knew a member of their unit who was gay.

Today's military and the reporters who cover them report a generation gap in the ranks on this issue. The older personnel are opposed to gays and lesbians serving openly. The younger ones tend not to think of the issue is a big deal either way. They have bigger issues to worry about.

Busy as he is on other issues, Obama owes at least a timetable for action on the big issues of concern to gay and lesbian communities that enthusiastically supported his election. The equal rights fight calls not only for outreach to opposing views but also leadership, commitment and action.

That's a tough call for any president, but as his predecessor might say, Obama is "the decider" now.