A standalone bill introduced by Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and co-sponsored by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” cleared the final hurdles in the US Senate to win passage by a supermajority yesterday afternoon delivering an early Christmas gift to the gay and lesbian community, particularly those whom are currently serving (albeit closeted) in the military and/or those whom have hopes of one day serving in the military. The bill, already passed by the House in its current form last week, now goes to the President for his eager and enthusiastic signature. While the bill does repeal DADT, it does require that the President and the top military leaders certify that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly will not harm morale and/or diminish the effectiveness of our military forces in any way (how could it really though?) and there will be some issues regarding implementation of new military policies that will undoubtedly need to be addressed. However, as things currently stand, almost all branches of the military, with the notable exception of the Marines, have already come out strongly in favor of repealing DADT and allowing gays and lesbians to be able to serve openly in the military and I feel confident that the development and implementation of new policies will likely not take a significant amount of time, particularly since the Obama administration has, contrary to popular opinion, been working rather diligently on this issue since coming into office in preparation for this particular moment.
More at:
http://www.examiner.com/liberal-in-indianapolis/the-death-of-dadt