U.S. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway said today that because marines are “very religious,” moral concerns will cause them to not want to room with openly gay troops after the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”  Conway’s comments were reported by NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski.

Conway said the Marine Corps will consider separate living facilities for gay and straight troops, something a Pentagon spokesman flatly rejected earlier this year.

Still, Conway added that if the military ban ends, the Corps will implement it and move on.  ”We cannot be seen as dragging our feet. We’ve got two wars to fight,” Conway said.

Advocates for repealing the military ban on openly gay troops say they’re working hard to make sure the Senate passes a defense authorization bill with the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal language intact.

The Senate Armed Services committee passed the National Defense Authorization Act with the amendment attached, so it will take 60 votes in the Senate to strip out the language.  While a filibuster of the overall bill seems unlikely, there may still be efforts to weaken the portion about the ban.

Among the groups working on the effort, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is targeting lawmakers such as Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, the only Democrat to vote against repeal in the Armed Services Committee.  Log Cabin Republicans is also lining up private assurances from GOP senators that they will not join a filibuster, according to the Advocate.

Meanwhile The Hill newspaper, which serves Capitol Hill, named SLDN’s executive director, Aubrey Sarvis (pictured), to its list of top lobbyists for 2010, saying:

As SLDN’s executive director, Sarvis is tirelessly fighting to see the military’s gay ban repealed this year. He navigates Congress with clear political acumen to see his organization’s sole goal achieved this year. Sarvis, who served in the Army right out of high school, spent six years as staff director and chief counsel of the Senate Commerce Committee and 14 years at Verizon’s legislative affairs shop.

Photo:  Pam Spaulding

Lt. Dan Choi, an openly gay Army officer who has become the face of efforts to end the military ban on gay servicemembers, was arrested today after he chained himself to a White House fence, according to the Advocate.  Choi reportedly hijacked a protest event a few blocks away at Freedom Plaza, urging participants–including Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese–to follow him on an impromptu march to the White House.  Learn more about the HRC-planned protest here.

Photo:  Kerry Eleveld/The Advocate

Both Republican candidates vying for their party’s nomination to become the next U.S. Senator from Florida say they oppose efforts to repeal the ban on openly gay servicemembers, according to the St. Petersburg Times:

U.S. Senate rivals Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio both said today they oppose abolishing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy affecting gays and lesbians in the military.

The 1993 policy was intended to be a political compromise that let gay men and women serve so long as they stayed silent about their sexuality. But President Barack Obama and top military leaders say it is time to end the discrimination all together.

“We are a nation at war. The governor believes the current policy has worked, and there is no need to make changes,” Crist campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said.

“Marco Rubio supports the current policy and doesn’t see any evidence it needs to be changed,” spokesman Alex Burgos said.

One of the two is likely to face U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) in the general election this November.

Via Towleroad.

During a background briefing for Hill staff today, White House aides reportedly signaled President Obama could make a “surprise” announcement about the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy during tonight’s State of the Union speech, GayPolitics has learned.

“I want to leave some surprises for the President and can’t go into greater detail about that,” an aide responded when asked about what the president plans to say about the military ban.  Earlier this week Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said the Pentagon had requested he delay hearings about the policy until after the president’s speech.