Seventeen years ago, when Colin Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he declared that "open homosexuality" was "incompatible" with military service.  At the time, he was defending the policy of "don't ask, don't tell," which forced gay and lesbian soldiers to hide their sexuality or leave the service.  But now he thinks that policy should be repealed.

"Today we've changed," he told ABC's "This Week."  "The country has changed."

Powell is right.  When it comes to sexual orientation, this is a far more open and tolerant country.  It's time to end a policy that has ended the careers of 13,000 homosexual troops, and forced countless others to live a lie while defending our security.

The House has passed a bill that would eliminate "don't ask, don' t tel l" af ter the Pentagon completes a study of the issue next December.  A Senate committee has passed a similar measure (attached to the defense funding bill) but it still faces a rocky legislative road.

A small but vocal chorus of Christian conservatives continues to oppose any change in current law, and they are strongly supported by some orthodox military chaplains who believe homosexuality is a sin.  As a result, only five House Republicans backed repeal on the floor and only one Senate Republican supported it in committee.

A filibuster is looming, and with time running out in the legislative session, repeal could get trampled in the rush for the exits.  That would be wrong.

The American people — including rank-and-file Republicans — know the current policy is deeply unfair.  Christian conservatives have a right to their opinion, but they don't have a right to impose their narrowminded view of homosexuality on the rest of the country.

I n t h e l a t e s t ABC/ Washington Post survey, 75 percent of Americans favor a military that includes openly gay and lesbian troops.  That's up from 44 percent in 1993, a swift and stunning shift, but the change is even greater among two key groups.  Eighty-four percent of women favor ditching "don't ask, don't tell," and for young people under 30, the rate is 81 percent.  Even among Republicans, 64 percent back repeal.

The reason is reality.  Most Americans know and like openly gay people in their schools, their workplaces, their neighborhoods and their own families.

Our grandsons play on a little league team with a child who has two dads.  Steve has a half-dozen former students living in loving, committed samesex relationships.  That's America, folks.

And remember: we have an all-volunteer army.  Those 13,000 troops who were kicked out over the past 17 years chose to serve their country.  We should be thanking them, not trashing them.

A change in policy does pose real challenges on issues like domestic partnerships and base housing.  And the military should respect the sensibilities of serving soldiers and their families during the transition.

But two other issues raised by critics are not legitimate.

The first is "unit cohesion" or "troop morale."  About 30 other countries, including most of our NATO allies, allow gays to serve openly, and we are told that in private conversations with Pentagon officials, these allies have sent a strong, uniform message: Your fears are unfounded; the impact has been minimal.

That leaves the Religious Right and their allies in the chaplain corps.  They have tried to frame this as a free-speech issue, arguing that chaplains who believe homosexuality is morally wrong will be forced into silence.  As 41 retired chaplains asserted in a recent letter, "Chaplains will confront a profoundly difficult morale choice: whether they are to obey God or to obey man."

Ringing words, but false ones.  As three other retired chaplains said in their own letter: "Under such a theory, President Truman would have been unable to integrate blacks into the armed forces, for many chaplains then believed that integration was sinful, and against God's wishes."

In a more basic sense, they added, the critics of repeal misunderstand the role of military chaplains, who "are trained to be pluralistic (and) to minister within the military's pluralistic and multicultural setting."

Chaplains swear to uphold the Constitution, and "the Bible d o e s n o t t r u m p t h e Constitution."

We have many bibles, many scriptures, many faiths in this c o u n t r y, b u t o n l y one Constitution.  Vast majorities now agree that the equal rights ordained by that document bar discrimination based on sexual orientation.  The country has changed, for the better.  "Don't ask, don't tell" served a purpose for its time, but that time is over.

(Steve Roberts' new book, "From Every End of This Earth," was published last fall.

Steve and Cokie Roberts can be contacted by e-mail at stevecokie@ gmail.com.)