Don’t Ask, Don’t Don’t Tell repeal has been stymied in the U.S. Senate, where it is part of a massive military funding bill that Republicans have blocked with filibusters. So, repeal advocates changed course yesterday, and the House of Representatives passed a “stand alone” measure to authorize repeal of DADT, decoupling the project from the spending bill. The vote was 250-175.
Also please see news update Dec. 18, 2010: Senate votes to move forward on DADT, windycitytimes.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=29846
The stand-alone bill now advances to the Senate as a “privileged motion” that can skip committee and head directly to the floor for debate.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is not expected to move on the new bill until early next week at the soonest.
The last Senate vote concerned with repealing the ban on openly gay members of the military fell three votes short of the 60 needed to end the filibuster. Since then, three additional Republicans have agreed to vote for repeal authorization via the stand-alone bill.
Repeal advocates also are continuing to pressure seven Republican senators seen as possibly persuadable: Nevada’s John Ensign, Florida’s George LeMieux, Indiana’s Richard Lugar, New Hampshire’s Judd Gregg, Ohio’s George Voinovich, Missouri’s Kit Bond and Illinois’ Mark Kirk.
They also hope to win the vote of Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
For more information, see www.sldn.org/content/pages/2313/.