Democrats to try for "Don't ask, don't tell" repeal this year

Senate Democrats will try to overcome a filibuster and vote to pass a repeal plan for "Don't ask, don't tell" after Thanksgiving, according to an announcement from the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The move comes after President Barack Obama personally lobbied Senate leaders to keep the repeal language in an overarching defense spending bill.

Meanwhile a spokesman said the Pentagon backs the current legislative effort to repeal the law that mandates the military policy. "We certainly see the merit in using that as the legislative vehicle to ultimately get to repeal," said Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell.

Call to Action: Call your Senators about DODT today

Today, as HRC launched full-page newspaper ads across the country calling for a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell but they need tens of thousands of supporters to back up those ads by joining them and the Courage Campaign to call on every single senator to end the discrimination of Don't Ask, Don't Tell NOW!The Senate must take action before they leave – and more anti-equality lawmakers take office.

Tell your senators to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" this week.

Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 to contact your senators.

Then click here to report your call.

Military leaders support repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

The highest-ranking leaders of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines appeared before Congress this week and testified in support of the strategy to repeal the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that was laid out by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

Army Chief of Staff General George Casey; Secretary of the Army John McHugh; Air Force Chief of Staff Norton Schwartz; Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley; Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead; Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and Commandant of the Marine Corps General James Conway all supported the implementation review announced earlier this month and now under way at the Pentagon.

Throughout this week, the service secretaries and service chiefs have been testifying before the U.S. House and Senate Armed Services Committees regarding defense authorization requests for Fiscal Year 2011.

“The leaders of our military service branches told Congress that they back Adm. Mullen and Secretary Gates’ roadmap for repeal and would absolutely be capable of carrying out orders abolishing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” when Congress and the president send those orders their way,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “The testimony given by the service chiefs this week only furthers the belief that whatever orders are handed to them by their superiors, our men and women in uniform will have no trouble carrying out those orders with honor and professionalism.”

More after the jump.

“Every shred of evidence shows that on the battlefield, sexual orientation doesn’t matter. Our country’s top military leaders and the overwhelming majority of the American public and active-duty service members all believe that the most important consideration isn’t whether a patriotic American fighting for our freedom is gay or straight, but whether they have the ability to perform their mission. The time to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is now,” continued Solmonese.

On Monday, Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) announced that he will introduce a bill in the U.S. Senate to repeal the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law. Representative Patrick Murphy (D-PA) is the lead sponsor of similar legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives. Since President Obama delivered his State of the Union address last month, during which he called for ending the ban on openly lesbian and gay Americans from serving in the military, there has been a nearly unanimous and diverse group who have spoke out in support of doing away with the law. Some of those include:


* Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates voiced their supportduring their congressional testimony before a Senate Armed Services Committee.



* General Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated, “I fully support the new approach presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee this week by Secretary of Defense Gates and Admiral Mullen.”



* A New York Times/CBS News national poll conducted on February 5th – 10th, 2010, shows yet again that a majority of Americans support repeal.



* The largest organization of retired U.S. military reserve officers in the nation voted to end its decades-long position in support of excluding lesbians and gays from the U.S. military. The association, founded in 1922 and chartered by Congress in 1950, also rejected the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law.



* Former Vice President and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney threw his support behind the effort to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” by stating, “When the chiefs come forward and say, ‘We think we can do it,’ then it strikes me as it’s time to reconsider the policy, and I think Adm. Mullen said that.”


Now is the time to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” To be part of the effort to ensure that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is repealed this year, please write your member of Congress.

Poll: 75% of Americans say military gays should serve openly

Three in four Americans now believe gay and lesbian military personnel should be able to be out on the job, compared with 62% in 2001 and 44% in 1993, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. The survey found that majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents agree that out gays should be allowed to serve. The Washington Post (7/19)