SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Illinois’ Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate want to overturn the nation’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on gays serving in the military, but they’re divided on the urgency of making the change.

Alexi Giannoulias said last week that he doesn’t argue with the Obama administration’s decision to delay action.

“These are patriotic Americans who should not be discriminated against,” said one Democrat, Chicago’s former inspector general David Hoffman. “While this policy change needs to be coordinated with military leaders, it should be done as soon as possible.”

Mark Kirk, a member of Congress and commander in the Naval Reserves, said in an e-mail that he supports “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” He wouldn’t answer any further questions about his thinking on the issue.

About 13,000 service members have been discharged under the policy since it was adopted in 1993.

Cheryle Robinson Jackson, former head of the Chicago Urban League, believes the “unjust and ineffective” policy should end immediately, said spokesman Bob Kettlewell.

Kettlewell noted a new report that found women were far more likely than men to be kicked out of the military under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Women accounted for 15 percent of all active-duty and reserve members of the military but more than one-third of the 619 people discharged last year for their sexual orientation, according to the Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

And a new article in the Pentagon publication “Joint Force Quarterly” concludes that having openly gay troops in the ranks will not hurt combat readiness. “Based on this research, it is not time for the administration to re-examine the issue; rather it is time for the administration to examine how to implement the repeal of the ban,” says the article written by Air Force Col. Om Prakash.