{"id":1659,"date":"2010-05-28T02:39:10","date_gmt":"2010-05-28T09:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=1659"},"modified":"2010-05-28T02:39:10","modified_gmt":"2010-05-28T09:39:10","slug":"dadt-the-beginning-of-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/05\/28\/dadt-the-beginning-of-the-end\/","title":{"rendered":"DADT: The Beginning of the End"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a good day for gay rights as the bill to repeal DADT moved forward, despite intense opposition from hate-filled Republicans.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"whichgay\"<\/a> The U.S. House and a Senate committee approved amendments to a military bill Thursday that would repeal the "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy barring openly gay and lesbian soldiers from military service, but only after some conditions are met.<\/p>\n

The Senate Armed Services Committee voted 16-12 to approve compromise language on the repeal in an amendment to the military policy bill. The panel then voted 18-10 to send the bill to the full Senate<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In the House, the chamber voted 234-194 to add the amendment to its version of the defense policy bill<\/strong>. A final vote on the full bill was expected Friday.<\/p>\n

President Obama praised the votes.<\/p>\n

"I am pleased that both the House of Representatives and the Senate Armed Services Committee took important bipartisan steps toward repeal tonight," Obama said in a statement. "This legislation will help make our Armed Forces even stronger and more inclusive by allowing gay and lesbian soldiers to serve honestly and with integrity."<\/p>\n

The Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, called it the first time since the "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy came into effect during the Clinton administration that any congressional body voted to repeal it.<\/p>\n

"This is the beginning of the end of a shameful ban on open service by lesbian and gay troops that has weakened our national security<\/strong>," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.<\/p>\n

The Senate committee’s vote on the amendment was mostly partisan, with 15 Democrats and one Republican — Sen. Susan Collins of Maine — supporting the compromise repeal language. The House vote also was along largely partisan lines, with 229 Democrats and five Republicans supporting the repeal amendment, while 168 Republicans and 26 Democrats opposed it\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <CNN<\/a>><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t yet know who the shameful Democrats are who opposed this.  When I know, so will you.  The GOP opposition was ugly.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"homophobia\"<\/a> …In an orchestrated manner, almost every single House Republican took to the floor to condemn the proposal, misrepresenting it as an immediate repeal that does not allow the Defense Department to complete its study. In the midst of considering other amendments, Republicans turned the discussion into an opportunity to condemn gays in the military<\/a>: <\/p>\n

REP. LOUIE GOHMERT (R-TX): \u201cIf someone has to be overt about their sexuality, whether it\u2019s in a bunker where they\u2019re confined under fire, then it\u2019s a problem<\/span>. And that\u2019s what repeal of Don\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell does. It says, \u2018I have to be overt, I don\u2019t care. I want this to be a social experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n

REP: TODD AKIN (R-MI): \u201cSo are we then going to then protect and condone homosexuality in the military?\u2026Is this the sort of thing that George Washington or our founders would be proud of, that we are doing today in this quick flash before Memorial Day?<\/span>\u201d<\/p>\n

REP. TRENT FRANKS (R-AZ): \u201cWe\u2019re going to say, \u2018No. We don\u2019t care what you say. You can die for us on the battlefield, but you have no input into this process.\u2019 That\u2019s a disgrace to this institution and it\u2019s an insult to the men and women who pour out their blood on foreign battlefields for the country that we all love so much.<\/span>\u201d <\/p>\n

Watch a compilation:<\/p>\n

 <\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

In the Senate, Armed Services Republicans threatened to filibuster the defense authorization bill<\/a> \u201cif it comes to the floor with Democrat-backed language repealing DADT.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll do everything in my power,\u201d Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said. \u201cI\u2019m going to do everything I can to support the men and women of the military and to fight what is clearly a political agenda.\u201d Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) agreed, promising to support a filibuster \u201cif the repeal language makes it into the version of the bill that goes to the floor, most likely after the Memorial Day recess.\u201d… [emphasis original<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Think Progress<\/a>><\/p>\n

What hypocrites they are!<\/font><\/p>\n

One person who was truly excited by these developments is Rachel Maddow.  Here\u2019s her say.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Do you believe John \u201cMcConJob\u201d McCain?<\/font><\/p>\n

I look forward to the day when all Americans can serve openly and with pride.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a good day for gay rights as the bill to repeal DADT moved forward, despite intense opposition from hate-filled Republicans. The U.S. House and a Senate committee approved amendments to a military bill Thursday that would repeal the "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy barring openly gay and lesbian soldiers from military service, but […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}