Senate votes to repeal 'don't ask, don't tell'

From staff and wire reports

WASHINGTON

In a historic vote for gay rights, the Senate agreed Saturday to do away with the the country's 17-year ban on openly gay troops and sent President Barack Obama legislation to overturn the Clinton-era policy known as "don't ask, don't tell."

Obama was expected to sign the bill into law next week, although changes to military policy probably wouldn't take effect for at least several months. Under the bill, the president and his top military advisers must first certify that lifting the ban won't hurt troops' ability to fight. After that, the military would undergo a 60-day waiting period.

Repeal would mean that, for the first time in U.S. history, gay troops would be openly accepted by the armed forces and could acknowledge their sexual orientation without fear of being kicked out.

"We righted a wrong," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., who led the effort to end the prohibition on gay service members in the military. "Today we've done justice."

Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb, both Democrats, voted to repeal the law.

More than 13,500 service members have been dismissed under the 1993 law.

"It is time to close this chapter in our history," Obama said in a statement. "It is time to recognize that sacrifice, valor and integrity are no more defined by sexual orientation than they are by race or gender, religion or creed."

The Senate voted 65-31 to pass the bill, with eight Republicans siding with 55 Democrats and two independents in favor of repeal. The House had passed an identical version of the bill, 250-175, earlier in the week.

Supporters hailed the Senate vote as a major step forward for gay rights. Many activists hope that integrating openly gay troops within the military will lead to greater acceptance in the civilian world, as it did for blacks after President Harry Truman's 1948 executive order on equal treatment regardless of race in the military.

"The military remains the great equalizer," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. "Just like we did after President Truman desegregated the military, we'll someday look back and wonder what took Washington so long to fix it."

Sen. John McCain, Obama's GOP rival in 2008, led the opposition. Speaking on the Senate floor minutes before a crucial test vote, the Arizona Republican acknowledged he couldn't stop the bill. He blamed elite liberals with no military experience for pushing their social agenda on troops during wartime.

"They will do what is asked of them," McCain said of service members. "But don't think there won't be a great cost."

Opinions were divided in Hampton Roads as well.

Gary Crouse of Norfolk said he supports the Senate's decision to repeal the policy. Crouse served 20 years in the Navy and said some of his colleagues knew he was gay and didn't approve of his sexuality, but nothing major ever happened.

"I think it's about time," Crouse said. "It should've been done when President Clinton was in office."

He said it will take a big weight off the shoulders of servicemen and women who are gay.

Others, like retired Rear Adm. Earl P. "Buddy" Yates, disapproved of the Senate's decision. Yates, who served for 35 years in the Navy, said the decision will divert attention and cause problems in the ranks.

"I don't believe we should make the military into a social experiment," he said. "This will bring extensive problems, and we need to be focusing on employing our troops and forces in combat."

How the military will implement a change in policy, and how long that will take, remains unclear. Senior Pentagon officials have said the new policy could be rolled out incrementally, service by service or unit by unit.

In a statement issued immediately after the vote, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he will begin the certification process immediately. But any change in policy won't come until after careful consultation with military service chiefs and combatant commanders, he said.

"Successful implementation will depend upon strong leadership, a clear message and proactive education throughout the force," he said.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he welcomes the change.

"No longer will able men and women who want to serve and sacrifice for their country have to sacrifice their integrity to do so," he said. "We will be a better military as a result."

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., a chief proponent of repeal, said he has received a commitment from the administration that it won't drag its heels.

"We hope it will be sooner, rather than later," he said.

The fate of "don't ask, don't tell" had been far from certain earlier this year when Obama called for its repeal in his State of the Union address. Despite strong backing from liberals in Congress, Republicans and conservative Democrats remained skeptical that lifting the ban could be done quickly without hurting combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In February, Mullen provided the momentum Obama needed by telling a packed Senate hearing room that he felt the law was unjust. As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mullen became the first senior active-duty officer in the military to suggest that gay troops could serve openly without affecting military effectiveness.

With Mullen's backing, Gates ordered a yearlong study on the impact, including a survey of troops and their families.

The study, released Nov. 30, found that two-thirds of service members didn't think changing the law would have much of an effect. But of those who did predict negative consequences, most were assigned to combat arms units. The statistic became ammunition for opponents of repeal, including the service chiefs of the Army and Marine Corps.

At least 25 countries allow gay troops to serve openly in the armed forces, among them Britain, Canada and Israel, according to the Palm Center, a research institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

This story was compiled from reports by The Associated Press, The New York Times and Pilot writer Jennifer Jiggetts.