HISTORY IS BEING MADE !!! REPEAL !!!

Gays celebrate repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell'

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AP – Cassandra Melnikow, foreground left, and her sister Victoria Melnikow, right, sit in New York's Times …

By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press – 1 hr 13 mins ago

NEW YORK – Word that the world's largest military power will allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military brought strong and swift reaction Saturday, with supporters declaring a civil rights milestone and detractors insisting it would weaken and divide the armed forces.

In New York, home to one of the nation's largest gay communities and a gay pride parade whose grand marshal this year was an openly gay, discharged serviceman, 28-year-old Cassandra Melnikow glanced at a news ticker in Times Square announcing the repeal and said: "Excellent! It's about time."

"I don't see what difference (sexual orientation) makes in the fighting military," said Melnikow, a public health researcher. "What's the big deal?"

President Barack Obama had made repealing "don't ask, don't tell" a campaign promise in 2008, and rounding up a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate was a historic victory for him. By the time President Bill Clinton proposed allowing gays to serve in the military in 1993, they had been explicitly barred from military service since World War I.

Foes of lifting the ban argued that the military shouldn't be used to expand the rights of gays and that allowing them to serve openly would hurt troop morale and a unit's ability to fight — the same arguments used against women and blacks.

In the end, Congress agreed to let gays serve only if their sexual orientation remained secret.

Repeal means that for the first time in U.S. history, gays will be openly accepted by the military and can acknowledge their sexual orientation without fear of being discharged. More than 13,500 service members have been dismissed under the 1993 law.

The change wouldn't take immediate effect, however. The legislation says the president and his top military advisers must certify that lifting the ban won't hurt troops' fighting ability. After that, there's a 60-day waiting period for the military.

Conservative organizations said the vote didn't reflect the sentiments of rank-and-file military members and should not have taken place so close to the end of the current session of Congress.

"The issue that really disturbs me more than anything else is that legislation that's controversial tends to be done in lame-duck sessions when a number of the elected representatives are no longer accountable to the people," said Len Deo, president of the New Jersey Family Policy Council.

The Massachusetts Family Institute said Republican senators who voted for the measure broke a promise they had made not to vote on the repeal until the federal budget was resolved.

"In doing so, they not only have put special interests above fiscal interests but also have put our troops at risk during wartime," said Kris Mineau, the group's president.

Some supporters of the repeal traveled to Washington to witness the vote, including Sue Fulton, a former Army captain and company commander who is spokeswoman for Knights Out, a group of 92 gay and lesbian West Point graduates who are out and no longer serving

Driving back home to North Plainfield, N.J., the 51-year-old Fortune 500 executive told The Associated Press that she thinks the repeal will have an effect on the civil rights of gays in America.

"As more people realize that gay and lesbian citizens are risking their lives to defend this country, perhaps they'll be more willing to acknowledge gays and lesbians as full citizens in other ways," she said.

Others monitored the vote from afar.

Several gay service veterans and others supporting the repeal stood around a small computer screen to watch C-SPAN coverage of the vote at San Francisco's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center. They erupted in cheers as the final tally was read.

Zoe Dunning, a retired U.S. Navy commander who continued to serve after declaring she was gay, cried and hugged other supporters.

"I'm living proof that the mere presence of an openly gay person in your unit does not harm either cohesion or morale," she said. "After 18 years working on this, I witnessed the end to this destructive policy, and these are tears of joy... I'm so happy to be present for this day that I'd always dreamed of."

Warren Arbury of Savannah, Ga., served in the Army for seven years, including three combat tours, before being kicked out two years ago under "don't ask, don't tell." But he said he planned to re-enlist once the policy is officially abolished.

"As soon as they give me the go, I'm going to march into the recruiter's office," he said. "And I want retroactive pay and rank."

Arbury said a fight for other social changes — such as allowing gays to marry and easing obstacles they face in adopting and raising children — still lies ahead, however.

"I think it's one step in a very long process of becoming an equal rights citizen," he said. "Even though this is really huge, I look at it as a chink in a very, very long chain."

In Brazil, where soldiers have been kicked out of the military for publicly commenting on being gay, gay rights advocacy groups said the Senate's vote would help advance their cause worldwide.

"The vote was an extremely important step forward for the United States and a major event for the world," said Toni Reis, president of the Brazilian Association for the Rights of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals. "I just hope that Brazil and other countries follow the American example."

Aaron Belkin, director of the California-based Palm Center — a think tank on the issue — said the vote "ushers in a new era in which the largest employer in the United States treats gays and lesbians like human beings."

For thousands of years, he said, one of the key markers for first-class citizenship in any nation is the right to serve in the military, and Saturday's vote "is a historic step toward that."

___

Associated Press writers Russ Bynum in Savannah, Ga., Jay Lindsay in Boston, Geoff Mulvihill in Trenton, N.J., Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco, and Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.

CONGRESS PASSES "DADT" REPEAL... NOW ONTO THE SENATE!!!

House Passes 

'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Repeal

By the CNN Wire Staff

December 15, 2010 7:29 p.m. EST

The bill passed 250 to 175 in a virtual party-line vote.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: President Obama, defense secretary urge Senate passage of the repeal bill
• NEW: Republican Sen. Snowe announces her support of a repeal
• The House votes to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, sending it to the Senate
• Senate Republicans have blocked consideration of the bill until the tax bill passes

RELATED TOPICS

• Don't Ask, Don't Tell
• Military and Defense Policy

Washington (CNN) -- The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to overturn the ban on openly gay and lesbian soldiers serving in the U.S. military, passing legislation repealing the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

The bill -- a so-called "stand alone" measure not tied to any other legislative items -- passed 250 to 175 on mostly partisan lines. It now advances to the Senate.

The House previously passed a repeal of the ban as part of a larger defense spending authorization bill, but the measure stalled last week in the Senate.

Also Wednesday, moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine announced her support for repealing "don't ask, don't tell," but only after the Senate completes work on the tax and benefits package and a measure authorizing continued government spending this fiscal year.

Snowe became the fourth Republican to publicly support a repeal, giving Democrats an opening to overcome a certain Republican filibuster. Sensing momentum on the issue, President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Wednesday for Senate approval so that the repeal can be signed into law.

"Moving forward with the repeal is not only the right thing to do, it will also give our military the clarity and certainty it deserves," Obama said in a White House statement. "We must ensure that Americans who are willing to risk their lives for their country are treated fairly and equally by their country.

Gates "encourages the Senate to pass the legislation this session, enabling the Department of Defense to carefully and responsibly manage a change in this policy instead of risking an abrupt change resulting from a decision in the courts," said a statement issued by Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell.

The sponsors of the measure in the Senate -- Connecticut independent Joe Lieberman and Maine Republican Susan Collins -- said the House vote showed bipartisan support for ending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

"It is now the Senate's turn to take the final step toward overturning this discriminatory policy. We are out of excuses," their statement concluded.

In House debate before Wednesday's vote, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, also said that "now is the time for us to act."

"We should honor the service of all who want to contribute" to America's security, Pelosi said. "Repealing 'don't ask, don't tell' makes for good public policy."

"Discrimination is wrong," declared Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia. "On the battlefield it does not matter who you love. Only the flag that you serve."

Conservative Republicans argued that, among other things, a repeal would place an unreasonable burden on the military at a time when it is already facing severe strains in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

This is "an imposition of somebody's social agenda," said Rep. Todd Akin, R-Missouri. It's an "eclipse of reason, an eclipse of common sense."

"The United States military is not the YMCA. It's something special," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-California. This is "a liberal crusade to create a utopia."

Obama and Democratic leaders are trying to push through a repeal before the end of the current lame-duck congressional session. The more conservative incoming Congress -- which will be seated the first week of January -- is considered far less likely to overturn the Clinton-era ban.

The Democratic Senate caucus has 58 members, meaning Democrats need at least two Republicans to join them to overcome a filibuster. So far, Republicans Snowe, Collins, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have said they would support a repeal, but they also have stood by a GOP pledge to block all Senate business until a resolution is reached on extending the Bush tax cuts and authorizing continued government this fiscal year.

Both the tax package and the spending authorization proposal are being debated and were expected to be passed in some form by the end of the lame-duck session.

A Pentagon study released earlier this month concluded that allowing openly gay or lesbian troops to serve in the military would have little lasting impact on the U.S. armed forces. Opposition to the change was much higher in Army and Marine combat units than in the military as a whole.

Gates has warned that court challenges to "don't ask, don't tell" could force an abrupt repeal of the policy, rather than the process in the legislation that would allow the military to manage the change on a longer timetable.

Last spring, Gates made changes that required any fact-finding inquiries about a possible "don't ask, don't tell" violation in the ranks to be started by an officer with the rank of colonel or Navy commander or higher. He also initiated rules that made it more difficult for a service member to be removed because of a third-party "outing."

The number of military discharges made due to the policy has since dropped sharply.

CNN's Alan Silverleib contributed to this report

Comment: On the meaning of leverage and other important lessons of the ‘Ledge’ - The Hawaii Independent :€“ News · Culture · Community

Comment: On the meaning of leverage and other important lessons of the ‘Ledge’ - The Hawaii Independent :€“ News · Culture · Community

Don't Ask, Don't Tell : The Reality Of Repeal

KEEP YOURSELF UP TO DATE ALWAYS...

'Don't ask, don't tell': The reality of repeal

By Ed Hornick, CNN

December 2, 2010 9:26 a.m. EST

U.S. Marines look out over the Helmand River from an outpost in Kajaki, Afghanistan.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Pentagon report finds that repealing "don't ask, don't tell" wouldn't hurt the military
• Opponents say there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered
• But those in favor of repeal say the answers are clear

Washington (CNN) -- It's not if, but when, the law banning openly gay men and lesbians from serving in the military will be repealed, say advocates and top administration officials.

Then it's a question of how.

Will domestic partners receive benefits? Will gays and lesbians get their own military status? What will happen to housing? Will there be separate barracks and facilities? Will the change affect unit cohesion, especially on the battlefield? Will troops opposed to the repeal leave the military in droves?

Tommy Sears, executive director of the Center For Military Readiness, which opposes the repeal, told the Fayetteville Observer this week that "don't ask, don't tell" may become a "social tinderbox" for the military.

"It's tantamount to saying to women that you are going to have to share living quarters and private areas [with men]," he said, referring to allowing openly gay service members to share barracks and showers. "We don't do that today with men and women. Now we're going to ask men and women to do so with people who are admittedly sexually attracted to them?"

The history of 'don't ask, don't tell'

'Don't ask, don't tell' survey released

Ending 'don't ask, don't tell' policy

McCain and 'don't ask, don't tell'

RELATED TOPICS

• U.S. Armed Forces
• Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Other critics, including Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, are worried that changing the law will hurt the military during wartime.

"The system is working," McCain told CNN's Candy Crowley. "The military is at its highest point in recruitment, in retention, in professionalism, in capability. So to somehow allege that this policy has been damaging the military is simply false."

But P.W. Singer, director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative and senior fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution, said most concerns are "more manageable than some of the hysteria that kind of surrounded it."

"You're talking about a force that we trust to figure out how to deal with complex military operations," he said. "They'll be able to figure this out. And you're also talking about an organization that basically when an order is given, it is executed."

The Senate is expected to vote on repeal in the lame duck Congress or early next year. A long-awaited Pentagon report released Tuesday said the transition would be relatively easy.

The yearlong study found that repealing the policy would have "some limited and isolated disruption to unit cohesion and retention," but the effects would not be long-lasting or widespread.

Read more about the study

"The general lesson we take from ... transformational experiences in history is that in matters of personnel change within the military, predictions and surveys tend to overestimate negative consequences, and underestimate the U.S. military's ability to adapt and incorporate within its ranks the diversity that is reflective of American society at large," the report concluded.

Alex Nicholson, executive director of Servicemembers United, which advocates for repeal, said the study is thorough and accurate.

Don't ask, don't tell

In 1992, President Clinton suspended the military's policy that barred gay, lesbian and bisexual people from serving in the military. 

Congress passed "don't ask, don't tell" in 1993. 

The law says gay, lesbian and bisexual service members are allowed to serve unless they: 

--Make a statement of their sexuality , publicly or to family and friends (and are later turned in)
--Attempt to marry a person of the same sex
--Get caught engaging in a homosexual act 

In 2005, a bill was introduced in the House to repeal "don't ask, don't tell." The bill did not have enough support to make it out of committee. 
In 2008, more than 100 retired generals and admirals called for repeal of  "dont' ask, don't tell." Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has called for a review of the policy.

During the 2008 presidential election, then-candidate Barack Obama promised to end the policy. 

Obama, as president, has been criticized by gay, lesbian and bisexual groups for not pushing harder to get the law repealed. 

Military statistics indicate that from 1997 to 2008, more than 10,500 service members have been discharged under the law. 

Servicemembers' Legal Defense Network -- an organization providing legal help -- says more than 13,000 gay, lesbian and bisexual service members have been discharged since 1994.

"The Pentagon Working Group did a very thorough job of trying to explore a wide variety of concerns over the repeal of the U.S. military's gay ban, but I really think their results reflect an overabundance of caution," said Nicholson, who was discharged from the Army under the Clinton-era law.

R. Clarke Cooper, an active duty Army reservist and head of the Log Cabin Republicans, agrees.

"So it does shoot holes when people say, 'Well this hasn't been thought through' or 'this seems forced prematurely,'" he said. "There was not this much study or review or even a complicated process that occurred when there was racial integration of the forces back in 1948. And there wasn't even this excessive review with co-educational integration of sexes in the forces."

The U.S. could learn a lot from Australia and Israel, allies that serve alongside U.S. forces overseas, said Retired Australian Army Maj. Gen. Simon Willis in a Brookings Institution panel discussion in May.

"I must say lifting the homosexual ban in the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] was a bit like the Y2K issue," he said. "There's a lot of bluster and screaming and yelling and plans, and everyone had an opinion about it, but it came and went, and that was it, nothing more was heard about it."

The authors of the Pentagon report said they did hear many religious and morally based objections to homosexuality.

But will that opposition lead to an exodus from the military?

"In the 1940s, there were a lot of predictions that senior noncommissioned officers would leave the ranks if segregation was ended," said Aubrey Sarvis, a veteran and current executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which advocates on behalf of gay and lesbian troops. "Well, that did not come to pass. Thirty some years ago, there were dire predictions that if women were allowed to attend the service academies, there would be a mass exodus from the ranks. That, too, did not happen."

In the end, advocates said it comes down to the military's uniform code of conduct.

"Getting rid of repeal does not take away the uniform code of conduct; does not take away standard operating procedures, doesn't mean all the sudden soldiers can show up dressed in a campy fashion -- because that's not uniform," Cooper said.

The report, along with supporters and experts, detailed how other questions would be resolved:

On a smooth transition: It comes down to strong leadership, according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Sarvis agreed, saying that "leadership, education and training are the three key components. This is not reinventing the wheel. For there to be a smooth implementation, all three of those elements will have to be at the forefront."

Singer, too, said, "Leadership is the key to success."

"Essentially, if the ban is lifted, service men and women are going to be looking to their superior officers for guidance," he said.

On privacy and discomfort over sharing bathrooms or housing: The report recommends "against separate facilities. ... The creation of a third or possibly fourth category of bathroom facilities and living quarters, whether at bases or forward deployed areas, would be a logistical nightmare, expensive and impossible to administer."

The report's authors added that separate facilities would stigmatize gay and lesbian service members "in a manner reminiscent of 'separate but equal' facilities for blacks prior to the 1960s."

On special minority status: "In a new environment in which gay and lesbian service members can be open about their sexual orientation, we believe they will be accepted more readily if the military community understands that they are simply being permitted equal footing with everyone else," the report said.

On those discharged coming back: According to the report, those forced out under the law should be allowed to return, without the reason for their dismissal being considered as part of their application.

On benefits for gay spouses or partners: The authors of the report urged more study, including a full review in a year of any policy change.

Even with a repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," not all benefits would be available to gay service members and their partners because of the Defense of Marriage Act, in which the federal government defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

On military housing: "We do not recommend at this time that military family housing be included in the benefits eligible for this member-designated approach," the report said. "Military housing is a limited resource and complicated to administer and a system of member designation would create occasions for abuse and confusion."

On operational effectiveness: Canadian forces Maj. Gen. Walter Semianiw told the Brookings panel that he found "no impact to reflect on operational effectiveness by having men and women of any sexual orientation fighting together, be it in Afghanistan ... be it in Iraq, be it on many key peacekeeping missions over the many, many years."

In their discussion of the report on Tuesday, Gates and Mullen agreed.

On unit cohesion: Those in favor of changing the law point out that U.S. troops are already serving with NATO troops who are openly gay, so they believe concerns over unit cohesion are unfounded.

For Cooper, who is openly gay and serving as a reservist, his combat experience in Iraq taught him that being open is a nonissue.

"Even before we were in a combat environment in Iraq and Afghanistan, [the U.S. troops were] already doing joint exercises with our NATO allies and we have been for decades," he said. "So have U.S. servicemen been serving next to open service personnel? Yes. In fact, some of them have been under the U.S. command."

Cooper shared a personal story in which a gay Australian soldier came out in a very low-key way, which caused "no change in behavior."

"He didn't walk up and say 'I'm gay.' He got a cake sent to him from Melbourne and people said, 'Oh is that from your mom? Is that from your girl?' [He said], 'No, it's from my dude.'"