Gay Thursday: No Need to Ask, but Do Tell if You Want To



This amounts to acknowledging that gay men and women have always been in the military.
It amounts to acknowledging the existence of gay men and women period. POTUS has to let people know that gay people have never hurt the military's ability to fight. Other things have. Perhaps it is fitting that appropriations are attached to its passing. Let's go back to the not too distant past and reflect on what the troops didn't have in Iraq ...

OK, don't get nervous out there. This doesn't mean that troops will be running amok proclaiming their sexuality. It means that we can get on with real life. We're here. We're pretty much everywhere. Ok? Get over it.



Ann Flaherty of Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — Congress is headed toward landmark votes on whether to allow gays to serve openly in the military.

The House was expected to vote as early as Thursday on a proposal by Rep. Patrick Murphy, a Pennsylvania 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.
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, D-Mich., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.
As in the House, the Senate provision would be tucked into a broader bill, authorizing hundreds of billions of dollars for the troops, that is expected to win broad support.
Supporters said this week the Senate panel had enough votes to pass the bill after key holdouts, including Sen. Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, announced they would swing behind it.

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