"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Votes Possible This Week

(AP)  Congress is headed toward landmark votes on whether to allow gays to serve openly in the military.

The House of Representatives was expected to vote as early as Thursday on a proposal by Rep. Patrick Murphy, a Democrat who served in the Iraq war, that would repeal the 1993 law known as "don't ask, don't tell."

The legislation - a compromise struck with the White House and agreed to by the Defense Department - would give the military as much time as it wants before lifting the ban.

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White House Grudgingly Backing "Don't Ask" Repeal Plan
"Don't Ask" Repeal Deal May be Imminent

Under the bill, the president, defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff must first certify that the new policy won't hurt the military's ability to fight.

"We need to get this done, and we need to get it done now," said Murphy.

Also as early as Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee was expected to take up an identical measure, proposed by Sens. Carl Levin, a Democrat, and Joe Lieberman, an Independent.

As in the House, the Senate provision would be tucked into a broader bill that is expected to win broad support authorizing hundreds of billions of dollars for the troops.

Supporters said this week the Senate panel had enough votes to pass the bill after key holdouts announced they would swing behind it.

Nelson said a provision in the billing giving the military the power to decide on the details of implementing the policy was key to his support because it "removes politics from the process" and ensures repeal is "consistent with military readiness and effectiveness."

Advocates hoped the momentum in the Senate would carry over to the House, where several conservative Democrats threatened to oppose the massive defense spending bill if it included the repeal provision.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said he supports repeal but would prefer that Congress wait to vote until he can talk to the troops and chart a path forward. A study he ordered is due on Dec. 1.

"With Congress having indicated that is not possible, the secretary can accept the language in the proposed amendment," said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.

The service chiefs this week urged the panel not to vote until the Pentagon could complete a survey of military personnel on the issue.

"The value of surveying the thoughts of Marines and their families is that it signals to my Marines that their opinions matter," Marine Commandant James Conway wrote in a letter to Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the panel's top Republican.

Adm. Mike Mullen, the nation's top uniformed officer and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told graduating Air Force Academy cadets Wednesday that they need to support a changing military.

Mullen didn't speak directly about the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. But the chairman, who has said that the policy unfairly forces troops to lie, said service members should question convention.

"Few things are more important to an organization than people who have the moral courage to question the direction in which the organization is headed and then the strength of character to support whatever final decisions are made," Mullen said.

[freelivingcancun]

Re: The two recent Gay bashings the other days in New York City, one in Chelsea and the other at the Stonewall inn:
It?s outrageous and disgusting that this type of assaults against any human being whether they are gay or straight continues to go on in this day and age of the 21st Century; we have all these laws on the books that don?t seem to be able to stop this kind of behavior.
We need to teach these young people about tolerance and educating them on the differences of people and try to make them understand that not everyone is the same and everyone has a right to be who they are and live the life they choose to, no matter what and that even if some people don?t agree with that person?s lifestyle, it doesn?t give them the rights to go out and hurt people or even worse kill people because of their misunderstandings about how people live.
We are all human beings and should all be treated the same as we would like to be treated.
Education and tolerance is the key to understanding, trying to get the message across by showing and explaining the differences on how certain people are and live. It would not be wise to force any issues down the throats of anyone; this will undoubtedly not help our cause. It?s great that some of the gay patrons were able to chase those gay bashers down and hold them until the police arrive.
There is still more work that needs to be done, such as stronger and tougher prison terms.
Let?s hope no other person is assaulted or killed as result of being different.
We are not always going to get along with everyone in our lives and not everyone is always going to agree with every issue or understand everyone, but we must make the efforts to try and help them.
If anyone is assaulted and verbally abused, it?s always important to make sure that we don?t stay silence and we must all get involved if we wan?t any form of violence and discrimination to stop.
It shouldn?t make any difference if a person is White, Black, Spanish, Asian, Indian, Male, Female, Gay, Straight, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Young, Old, and Ugly, Good-looking, tall, short, fat or tin, we are all the same and everyone should start to get along with one another.
These are my own opinions and beliefs.
Thank You.
Sincerely,
Paul Priore
(Flushing, New York.)

[freelivingcancun]

Re: The recent suicides of the following young youths:
These young children ended up committing suicide as a result of being bullied and for either being gay or perceived to have been gay. Asher Brown age 13, Seth Walsh age 13, Justin Asberg age 15, Billy Lucas age 15, Tyler Clementi age 18, and Raymond Chase age 19. We have failed these young children, because when these kids brought to the forefront the problems they were experiences, no one took the time to help them and put a stop to the constant bulling that they all had experienced.
Where were the Principals, Assistant Principals, Teachers, Teachers aids, Counselors, school boards, school clubs, Elective Officials and so on?
As a victim of discrimination and bulling, I know all to well what it feels like to be treated differently, because of who I am and when I complained about the problems that I was having with some of the baseball players at my former employer the New York Yankees, no one would take the time to help me or do anything about it, they just ignored me and pushed me aside, I suspect that is what had happened to these young kids.
They probably felt that they had nowhere to turn for help and they felt that killing their selves was the only way to escape from the constant abuse and bulling they were all subjected to.
We need to recognize the signs of depression and bulling and help these kids from thinking about killing themselves; parents need to recognize any and all signs such as appearance and attitude change, lost of interest in daily activities and they need to listen to their kids cries for help.
We are all one people, whether we are White, Black, Spanish, Asian, Indian, male, female, gay, lesbian, straight, transgender, bi-sexual, tall, short, fat, thin, ugly, good looking, young and old, we all have feelings and should be treated equally.
We should not be so judgmental, critical, mean spirited, or any other such things as that, no one is completely without having some type of flaws, whether it be, having bad teeth, bad hair, bad body, and some form of disability, we are all human beings and should all be treated the same as we would like to be treated by others.
We must help these kids in every way, shape and form from ever feeling that this is the only way out of their troubles.
We must do everything in our powers to make sure no other kids consider thinking about killing themselves; we all have some kind of problems in life and need to help those that feel too weak to go on alone.
Respect everyone, knowledge is power, education and tolerance is the key to all the worlds? ills, not by force, but by educating people.
These are my own personal opinions and beliefs.
Thank You.
Sincerely,
Paul Priore
(Flushing, New York.)

[digrawg]

I look forward to the day when sexual deviants are allowed to adopt children and serve openly in the military. I can't believe that anyone would condemn or oppose this! I am in the Navy and I want our homosexuals to be free to tell us about their sexual deviation and I want them to be loud and proud! I want to be able to look around me and 24/7 on a 6 month deployment and take comfort in knowing that the people who I'm working closely with and sharing living quarters with are sexual deviants. I want them to be able to walk around on the boat all day long proclaiming their deviation for me and all of my fellow honorable servicemembers to hear, including the Captain, the Commodore and all of the marines on the boat! I will not rest until sexual deviants are practicing their deviation openly, loud and proud, in full military uniform. Dear God please get them into the service. And to those of you that are in the service having to conceal your sexual deviation; thank you for your service! We're gonna make sure you can be open, it might take some more work, but we'll make it happen!!! God bless you guys

[jnorthan]

I need help. I am in college and I am doing a presentation to my class concerning the social issue "Don't Ask Don't Tell". Could I get the military point of view on this issue? How do you feel about it?

[freewhat]

0K .......... does it really matter what or how you live your life. im sorry to say that if you have to be straight to protect the freedom of america than than we must change the name to straghtican does it really matter when the bullets start to fly who cares they can take a life or save one as well as we can man up get along with others for they may save your life ........

[jamied77]

I am a straight female who served in the military,
The first time I ever met anyone who was a homosexual was when I was in the military. He was pretty open about it as well. one of the things the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy does is protect our homosexual sevice members. You can not openly ask someone if they are gay. If you do you can be in some hot water. The same thing about a homosexual openly saying that their gay. Please remember not everyone in the military, just like the rest of the world, is open minded about this. I am worried that if this rule passes people could get hurt. Things need to change but we need to becareful on how fast we change them. We have to implement a plan to keep people safe and to allow people to adjust. We are going to have to segregate homosexuals from hetersexuals, with regards to bunking and showering, until people are more confortable with the change. Things need to change but please lets do this right. Allow are service men and women to voice their opinion on this matter, and I am sure that the homosexual service members will voice their opinions as well. Just because they can't say their there doesn't mean their not. Happy Memorial Day to all my veterans and military brothers and sisters.

[divaboy505]

As a gay male I see nothing wrong with the GLBT community serving in our military. If they are physically and mentally able to serve our country there shouldn't be any reason for us to fight and defend our own freedom. If you don't want gays in the military you might as well not allow blacks, hispanics, jews, asians, in the military. We are ONE NATION and as far as I know being gay is not a "disease" or a mental disability. What happens in the bedroom should stay there. I don't care if your straight bi or gay, leave it in the bedroom. What we choose to do for pleasure shouldn't have any affect on serving our country. God bless America. God keep our troops safe and bring them home safely. Amen.

[pcrandall1965]

You see nothing wrong with homosexual men taking showers with straight men.... I suppose you would see nothing wrong with straight men taking showers in an open shower with women.... Are you just stupid? Don't you realize Mr. Homosexual that we all have an instinctive sex drive and are turned on by the genetaila and the visual image of others that we find attractive. This would be great to have soldiers in the shower who are openly attracted to one another. This would be great for the overall morale of the service. Your assessment of the situation is juvenile and assinine.... I am constantly amazed at the ability of homoxexuals to justify any behavior they deem normal....

[pwebster_12]

I just want to point out for a moment, pcrandall, that gay men and women already serve in the military right now, they take showers with straight men currently and I'm sure most of them handle it just fine. The only thing this bill will change is keeping them from being kicked out if someone were to find out they were gay, DADT does not keep them from joining it only makes them have to lie about it and sneak around so no one finds out.

[freelivingcancun]

Re: Repealing the United States of America?s Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell military stance:

To all concern:
As a Gay Man, I am totally against repealing the Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell military policy.
I say leave it the way it is.
Its nobodies business if you are Gay or Not.
You don?t hear Straight people in the military saying hey, I?m straight.
Gay People are just asking for trouble.
Most straight, religious, conservative people don?t accept the Gay life style and just because Gay people want to serve openly, will only cause more harm than good.
Straight people who don?t accept the Gay life style are going to feel completely uncomfortable around openly Gay People because every time, they get undressed, they are going to feel that some Gay personnel is going to make a pass at them or try to seduced them in to having sex, which of course will cause them to get attacked.
I say don?t change a thing and leave it the way it was intended, to protect Gay people from being assaulted or worse killed.
Thank You.
Sincerely,
Paul Priore
(Flushing, New York.)

[pwebster_12]

I respect your opinion about this as a gay man and your worries about violence against soldiers that come out while in the military however this bill is not about people being able to go around saying "Hey everyone, guess what, I'm gay!!" It's about protecting their right to serve without them having to worry about being kicked out if someone did happen to find out they were gay. A ridiculous amount of men and women that were perfectly capable of serving their country in a time when we need good men and women to serve have been kicked out because someone found out they were gay. That absolutly should not happen, my husband was in the army for 3 years and as his wife I enjoyed getting to know the men he served with and their spouses, it isn't fair to ask someone to sneak around and hide a big part of their lives just because it might make someone uncomfortable, I can't imagine how it would feel for me or my husband if he had not been allowed to tell anyone that he was married to me, if I wasn't allowed to meet anyone he served with or be acknowledged as his wife (or girlfriend if that were the case).

I too worry about the closed minded idiots in the military that think gay men will make passes at them or try to seduce them or whatever other ridiculaous ideas may run through their minds and that they may act out violently against those soldiers however I hope that most would have more sense then that and that after a while gay men in the military would become the norm and people would get over it and get used to it...

[krotec54]

I would like to see our military like it was before DADT went into effect.
No Homosexual or bisexual citizens were not allowed to join the military. Our government will be saving in training and we really need to ensure that our military is not distracted or our morale in jeopardy.
DADT just allowed those citizens to LIE about their mental condition that will and has caused problems in the service.

[freelivingcancun]

Re: Repealing the United States of America?s Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell military stance:

To all concern:
As a Gay Man, I am totally against repealing the Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell military policy.
I say leave it the way it is.
Its nobodies business if you are Gay or Not.
You don?t hear Straight people in the military saying hey, I?m straight.
Gay People are just asking for trouble.
Most straight, religious, conservative people don?t accept the Gay life style and just because Gay people want to serve openly, will only cause more harm than good.
Straight people who don?t accept the Gay life style are going to feel completely uncomfortable around openly Gay People because every time, they get undressed, they are going to feel that some Gay personnel is going to make a pass at them or try to seduced them in to having sex, which of course will cause them to get attacked.
I say don?t change a thing and leave it the way it was intended, to protect Gay people from being assaulted or worse killed.
Thank You.
Sincerely,
Paul Priore
(Flushing, New York.)