The Department of Defense has suspended Don't Ask Don't Tell in the wake of a fedeal appeals court ruling Wednesday that ordered the department to stop enforcing the law, Army Times' Andrew Tilghman reports. The Pentagon will now accept applications from openly gay recruits and will stop separating gay troops. Four troops have been separated since Congress repealed DADT last fall, an act that gave the military 60 days to finally end the policy after the Secretary of Defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certified that the military was ready for the new rules.

Right now, soldiers are taking classes to understand the new rules, training which should be done by the end of the summer.

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Elspeth Reeve