"The struggle to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons is a global challenge, and one that is central to the United States' commitment to promoting human rights," Obama said in a statement.

Gay rights groups praised the order as a significant step for ensuring that gays and lesbians are treated equally around the world.

"Today's actions by President Obama make clear that the United States will not turn a blind eye when governments commit or allow abuses to the human rights of LGBT people," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay advocacy organization.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who has never been as comfortable fighting the culture wars as most conservatives, has endorsed the repeal of the Pentagon's failed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" experiment.

This is rather a big deal. Cheney may not be a military man himself — he diligently collected five deferments while avoiding the draft during the Vietnam War, famously declaring that he had "other priorities — but he is a former Secretary of Defense who them took work as the top executive of one of the country's primary defense contractors. That makes him about as central a player in the military-industrial complex as you'll find.

So what does Cheney say about the push to scrap the rules that allowed gays and lesbians to serve in the military so long as they remained, for all intents and purposes, closeted?