In response to a question from the Human Rights Campaign, Barack Obama made this statement on what he would do as president to repeal the ban on openly gay and lesbian soldiers in the military. HRC has asked each of the major Democratic candidates to answer the question “If you are elected President, what concrete steps would you take to overturn ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?’”

This statement lays out specifically what Barack would do to allow gay men and lesbians to serve their country through military service without being forced to lie.

Click for Barack Obama’s platform on LGBT civil rights.

Fourteen years ago, the Democratic Party faced a test of leadership, and our party failed that test. We had an opportunity to be leaders on the World stage in eliminating discrimination against gay and lesbian service members, to recognize the patriotism and heroism of the hundreds of thousands of gay and lesbian citizens who have served our country. Instead, we bowed to fear and prejudice. We were told that American soldiers weren’t ready to serve next to gay and lesbian comrades. We were told that our airmen, sailors and Marines would lose their “unit cohesion” if we implemented a policy of equality. And so, rather than embracing leadership and principle, we embraced Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — a policy that is antithetical to the values of honor and integrity that our military holds most dear. Patriotic gay and lesbian Americans are now told that they may serve their country only if they hide their true identities. They are forced to live a lie as the price of risking their lives for their country.

Fourteen years later, the United States of America lags far behind. We lag behind our military allies, who are repudiating discrimination against lesbian and gay soldiers in ever increasing numbers — in Great Britain, Canada, Israel, nearly every NATO member in Europe — all with no impact upon military readiness and performance. And our politicians lag behind the American people, who now call for the repeal of Don’t Ask,Don’t Tell in super-majority numbers. It is time for a change.

As president, I will work with Congress and place the weight of my administration behind enactment of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which will make nondiscrimination the official policy of the U.S. military. I will task the Defense Department and the senior command structure in every branch of the armed forces with developing an action plan for the implementation of a full repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. And I will direct my Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to develop procedures for taking re-accession requests from those qualified service members who were separated from the armed forces under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and still want to serve their country. The eradication of this policy will require more than just eliminating one statute. It will require the implementation of anti-harassment policies and protocols for dealing with abusive or discriminatory behavior as we transition our armed forces away from a policy of discrimination. The military must be our active partners in developing those policies and protocols. That work should have started long ago. It will start when I take office.

America is ready to get rid of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. All that is required is leadership.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, surging in Iowa polls in the Republican presidential race, wrote on a questionnaire while running for U.S. Senate in 1992 that homosexuality is “aberrant” and “sinful.”

“I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk,” Huckabee wrote in the questionnaire for The Associated Press, which reported the answer on Saturday.

In another answer that could damage his standing in the presidential race, Huckabee wrote on the questionnaire that AIDS research was receiving an unfair amount of federal money. Instead, he said celebrities should pay for the research themselves.

“In light of the extraordinary funds already being given for AIDS research, it does not seem that additional federal spending can be justified,” Huckabee wrote, according to the AP.

“An alternative would be to request that multimillionaire celebrities, such as Elizabeth Taylor, Madonna and others who are pushing for more AIDS funding be encouraged to give out of their own personal treasuries increased amounts for AIDS research.”

The revelations could dampen the enthusiasm for the candidacy of Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, because the language clashes with his image as a compassionate, sunny leader.

It also could cause Republican voters to reevaluate whether he would be effective at winning swing voters in a general election that looks trying for the GOP.

Huckabee also wrote that he wanted to quarantine AIDS patients, according to the AP:

“If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague…. It is difficult to understand the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents.”

Huckabee’s written public statements came during his initial run for public office, which he lost to incumbent Democratic Sen. Dale Bumpers.

Huckabee is not renouncing the comments, but is seeking to explain them by pointing to the context of the times.

The former governor told reporters Saturday in Asheville, N.C., that there were “a lot of questions” about AIDS when he filled out the AP survey in 1992, according to Joy Lin of CBS News. Huckabee brought up a case in 1991 of a patient who had contracted AIDS from her dentist and said the nation was in “real panic.”

“What I mentioned was that the only time in human history that we had not quarantined people who were carrier of a disease for which we didn’t know where it was going was this time,” said Huckabee.

“If I were making those same comments today, I might make them a little differently,” he added. “But obviously I have to stand by what I said. … Medical protocol typically says that if you have a disease for which there is no cure and you are uncertain about the transmission of it, the first thing you do is quarantine or isolate the carriers.”

Still, the report is a second distraction at a time when Huckabee has tied or passed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in polls in Iowa. A Newsweek poll of likely Iowa caucus-goers taken Wednesday and Thursday found Huckabee leading Romney by a 2-1 margin, 39 percent to 17 percent. Newsweek’s last poll, in late September, had Huckabee at 6 percent and Romney at 25 percent.

Even before the revelation about his incendiary 1992 views on AIDS policy, Huckabee was facing questions about whether he will be a durable candidate and is prepared for commander-in-chief responsibilities.

The scrutiny has been harsh, leading some Republicans to wonder if Huckabee peaked too soon.

This week in Iowa, he left reporters agape when he said he had not heard about an intelligence report on Iran that had been dominating newscasts and front pages for two days. He later blamed his staff.

Perhaps more damagingly, he has not warded off questions about his role in the 1999 parole of a rapist, supported by Arkansas pastors, who went on to kill a mother of three.

Huckabee said on NBC’s “Today” show on Thursday that he “didn’t put pressure” on the parole board. The former governor acknowledged to CBS’s “The Early Show” that he considered – but denied – a commutation, although the convict was eventually freed, anyway.

“It wasn’t so much his innocence, but it was the sentence and the fact that while he was awaiting trial, someone broke into his home,” Huckabee said. “It was a horrible case from start to finish for everybody – for the victims, for him.”

Nevertheless, heavy television attention to the case – with its shades of the Willie Horton case that was so damaging to Michael Dukakis in his 1988 presidential race – has undercut Huckabee’s law-and-order credentials and raised questions about his candor and judgment.

In a quick check of Republican reaction after the AP story broke, some conservatives said they viewed Huckabee’s answers as a blunt statement of views held by many in his Southern Baptist flock, and an antidote to the waffling that pervades politics.

So it may turn out that his more damaging answer was not the one about his view of homosexuality but rather his foray into federal policy – quarantining AIDS patients and cutting funding for research.