Levin: Obama to keep gay military pledge

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. President Obama will live up to his pledge to end the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gay service members, a senior Democrat said Sunday.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan told NBC's "Meet the Press" Obama "can" and "will" succeed in ending what he said is the military's "discriminatory policy" on gays in uniform.

"I think it has to be done in the right way, which is to get a buy-in from the military, which I think is now possible," Levin said. "Other militaries in the West, the British and other Western armies, have ended this discriminatory policy. We can do it successfully."

Levin's comments came as thousands of gay and lesbian demonstrators filled the streets of Washington Sunday to demand full equality under the law, including the right to openly serve in the armed forces, the Los Angeles Times reported, saying participants in the National Equality March stretched past the White House down Pennsylvania Avenue to the U.S. Capitol.

The newspaper said they chanted Obama's "Yes we can" campaign slogan while carrying signs and banners.