Do Ask, Do Tell

After 17 years of discrimination and discharges, the United States Senate has finally voted to repeal "Don't Ask Don't Tell" law. The final tally was 65-31 votes. 57 Democrats and 8 Republicans (Senators Scott Brown, Richard Burr, Susan Collins, John Ensign, Mark Kirk, Lisa Murkowski, Olympia Snowe and George Voinovich) voted to repeal the law. Democratic Senator Harry Reid, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Steny Hoyer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Independent Senator Joe Lieberman led the effort to repeal the law on both the House and the Senate. Before the Senate vote, the House introduced the bill to repeal and past it as a stand alone bill 250-175 on December 16.

Prior to the Senate passage, Republicans were planning on running out the clock before the holiday recess. Senator Reid had this to say about that "Fine -- you want endless debates to waste time? Then we'll just stay in session over the Christmas break, how's that?" Republican Sen. Jon Kyl responded "It is impossible to do all of the things that the majority leader laid out, frankly, without disrespecting the institution and without disrespecting one of the two holiest of holidays for Christians and the families of all of the Senate, not just the senators themselves but all of the staff." Vice President Biden fired back "Don't tell me about Christmas. I understand Christmas. I've been a senator for a long time. I've been there many years where we go right up to Christmas. There's ten days between now and Christmas. I hope I don't get in the way of your Christmas shopping but this is the nation's business. This is the national security that's at stake. Act."

In 1992, former President Clinton campaigned to allow all citizens to serve in the military regardless of sexual orientation. After being elected, Congress added an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1994 requiring the military to ban and discharge all GLBT from military service. As a compromise, former Pres. Clinton issued the Defense Directive 1304.26 to forbid the military from asking new military applicants about their sexual orientation. That policy was originally called the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue, Don't Harass" policy. Today, it is simply known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" as the military leadership ignored the "Don't Pursue, Don't Harass" parts.

Some of the activists and organizations responsible for pushing this Congress to act are Lady Gaga, the Human Rights Campaign, Dan Choi, and the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. President Obama issued this statement after the vote "By ending 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' no longer will our nation be denied the service of thousands of patriotic Americans forced to leave the military, despite years of exemplary performance, because they happen to be gay." He is expected to sign the bill into law days before Christmas Eve.