Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Passes In The House... Again

This afternoon the House first agreed to consider passing, 232-189, and then passed, 250-175, a stand-alone version of Patrick Murphy's amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill (killed last week by conservatives in the Senate) that would repeal the legalistic bigotry of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. It will now move on to the Senate, where a majority wants to pass it but where a filibuster by a few dedicated homophobic maniacs will prevent it from ever coming to a final vote. More about that in a moment.

First, only two Republicans voted in favor of allowing the vote to proceed-- Ron Paul (R-TX) and the retiring Mike Castle (R-DE). All of the GOP closet queens voted to force military men and women to stay in the same hellish closet they, out of cowardice and self-loathing, have chosen for themselves-- even though thousands of service members want nothing to do with the sickness and perversion inherent in closets. Among the Republican closet queens who voted against allowing a vote on repeal yesterday were David Dreier (R-CA), Trent Franks (R-AZ), Leonard Lance (R-NJ), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Aaron Schock (R-IL) and Adrian Smith (R-NE). Self-proclaimed Republican moderates who swear up and down-- especially to their gay constituents-- who voted against considering repeal were Judy Biggert (R-IL), Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Ahn Cao (R-LA), Charlie Dent (R-PA), the Diaz-Balart brothers (R-FL), Charles Djou (R-HI), Dave Reichert (R-WA) and the representative of South Beach and Key West, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).

The only known closeted Blue Dog voted for repeal, but a dozen conservative Democrats, all hysterical homophobes, voted with the Republicans. Five of themm were defeated in November-- Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL), Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS), Artur Davis (AL), Jim Marshall (Blue Dog-GA), and Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS)-- and seven will still be around next year voting with the Republicans against the LGBT community:

Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK)
Mark Critz (PA), whose first vote in Congress was voting against the original Murphy amendment to repeal DADT
Lipinski, Jr (IL)
Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC)
Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR)
Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)

As you can see, three-quarters of the Democrats basking in homophobia are Blue Dogs, supposedly a caucus concerned about deficits. I might remind anyone unaware of Blue America's efforts to rid Congress of Blue Dogs that this past cycle we helped exterminate, politically speaking, the worst Blue Dog of all, Bobby Bright. We'll be looking to do the same thing from those listed above at our Blue America Bad Dogs page.

Later in the afternoon when the actual vote came up, 15 Democrats voted with the Republicans and 15 Republicans voted with the Democrats. The homophobic Democrats on the wrong side of history were the assholes listed above (minus Shuler and Lipinski, Jr) plus Lincoln Davis (defeated Blue Dog-TN), Solomon Ortiz (defeated ConservaDem-TX), Nick Rahall (WV), Ike Skelton (defeated ConservaDem-MO) and John Tanner (retiring Blue Dog-TN).
For anyone interested, the latest poll by the Washington Post/ABC News shows a tremendous surge of support for repeal, almost 80% of Americans agreeing that gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly.

The results signal continued widespread public support for ending the military's 17-year ban on gays in the military and come as Congress prepares to vote again on legislation ending the military's "don't ask, don't tell" law.

Overall, 77 percent of Americans say gays and lesbians who publicly disclose their sexual orientation should be able to serve in the military. That's little changed from polls over the two years, but represents the highest level of support in a Post-ABC poll. The support also cuts across partisan and ideological lines, with majorities of Democrats, Republicans, independents, liberals, conservatives and white evangelical Protestants in favor of homosexuals' serving openly.

Jerry Nadler (D-NY) is the chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and of course he was overjoyed by the overwhelming passage in the House-- and worried about the reactionaries in the Senate who are once again ignoring the will of the American people.

The ongoing delays in repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" are both unacceptable and offensive to the many committed gay and lesbian soldiers who have served in our armed forces. It has long been clear-- through reports, expert testimony, and common sense-- that the presence of gay and lesbian service members in the military has no negative effect on troop morale or unit cohesion. Quite the contrary, this discriminatory policy has, for the past 17 years, proved downright counterproductive to the morale and strength of our great military. We owe it both to our service members and to LGBT Americans to repeal the law now without further unnecessary delay. It is now up to the Senate to do the right thing and end this terrible policy once and for all.

It's now up to the Senate, where, like I said, a clear majority would like to pass the bill but where the bigots and haters are filibustering it. I would also point out that along with the worst of the homophobic fanatics like Jim DeMint (R-SC), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), John Cornyn (R-TX), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), John McCain (R-AZ) and John Thune (R-SD) are one Democrat, Joe Manchin (WV), and several so-called moderate Republicans, the very frightened Olympia Snowe (who fears defeat at the hands of Maine teabaggers) and Scott Brown from Massachusetts, who has behaved like a striptease artist in regard to our active-duty fighting men and women from the LGBT community. He should pay attention to another resident of Massachusetts, the one I'd love to see take him on, mano a mano, in the 2012 election.

UPDATE: Manchin is sticking to his anti-gay guns, but it looks like Snowe and Brown may have come around and may, possibly voted to end anti-gay bigotry in the military-- or at least to allow a vote on it this afternoon. Stay tuned.