U.S. Senate Advances Repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

UPDATE (3:50pm): This afternoon, the U.S. Senate followed this morning's cloture vote with a vote on full repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The measure passed 65-31, with two addition Republican Senators -- John Ensign (Nevada) and Richard Burr (North Carolina) -- joining with the majority in voting for repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

For the past 17 years, the United States has kicked out nearly 14,000 soldiers from the U.S. military because of a policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Under that policy, soldiers who were gay, bisexual or lesbian were discharged from the military, and tens of thousands of gay recruits have been turned down, all because of their sexual orientation. You can’t serve your country, because you’re gay, our country has repeatedly said.

Today, the tragedy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” took one step closer to ending, as the U.S. Senate voted on a bill that would move repeal of this law forward, pending the President’s and the Pentagon’s approval. The bipartisan vote count was 63-33.

What a historic day, and one of the rare opportunities where the U.S. government took a bold stand in saying that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is wrong, and a threat to our national security.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), one of the most aggressive voices in the U.S. Senate for repeal, spoke on the Senate floor immediately before the vote and noted the many ways in which “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has made us less safe as a nation. In addition to the loss of 14,000 well-qualified troops, Sen. Gillibrand noted that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has wiped out nearly 10 percent of our military linguistic experts, and that nearly 1,000 mission critical officers have been kicked out of the military – positions that are deemed imperative to U.S. national security – all because of their sexual orientation.

Now, with a majority vote in favor of repeal in both chambers of Congress, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has taken a giant step closer toward elimination. Should the President and the Pentagon move forward as planned, the U.S. will join nearly two dozen of its allies in allowing openly gay, lesbian and bisexual troops to serve their country.

“We owe a great deal of thanks to many Congressional leaders who got us here today," said Aubrey Sarvis, the head of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN). "This is the defining civil rights initiative of this decade and today’s bill passage would not have been possible without Harry Reid’s determined leadership.  And finally, without commitment and a clear plan from the White House for the Pentagon’s Comprehensive Review Working Group, we would not stand here today.”

The Human Rights Campaign delivered similar sentiments, noting that dismantling this discriminatory law makes America that much more beautiful.

"Today, America lived up to its highest ideals of freedom and equality. Congress recognized that all men and women have the right to openly serve their country,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “Plenty of people had already planned the funeral for this legislation. Today, we pulled out a victory from what was almost certain defeat just a few days ago."

This is a major victory, after years and years of work by LGBT organizations, individual activists, and political leaders. And it was bipartisan, with six Republican Senators moving repeal forward -- Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. Scott Brown (Mass.), Sen. George Voinovich (Ohio), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Sen. Mark Kirk (Ill.).

Kudos to everyone who took action on this issue. When this law is written into the history books, we can all look on with pride, knowing that on December 18, 2010, we all helped put one of the final nails in the coffin of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

Photo credit: SLDN@Pride2010