Repeal Of Don't Ask, Don't Tell Don't Pass The Senate
On Tuesday, gay/lesbian advocates were dealt a setback when The Defense Appropriation Act of 2011 was shot down by the Republicans in the Senate. All Republicans, including both Democratic senators from Arkansas, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, voted against the bill.
Recent polls show that 75% of American's believe that Don't Ask Don't Tell should be repealed. Which in today's age of tea parties, libertarians, the far right and left, as well as the mainstream Democrats and Republicans themselves, to get 75% agreement is astonishing.
Now, the argument can be made that the Republicans simply voted against the bill because of the language of some of the new Immigration laws or because of the budget for the Department of Defense, which was the main body of the bill. But most skeptics believe it was because of Don't Ask Don't Tell.
Gay rights advocates did receive some good news this week though. A judge in Washington state ruled that a openly lesbian Air Force nurse be re-instated because "Her discharge from the Air Force Reserves violated her substantive due process rights under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution." In a similar case in California, a judge ruled the policy as "unconstitutional."
Don't Ask Don't Tell was enacted in 1993 and barred openly gay and lesbian men and women from serving. It also bars officials from inquiring a person's sexual orientation. But since its inaction, over 12,000 men and women have been dis-honorably discharged because of the act.
Now everyone in Washington does not believe this to be the end of the bill. With approval numbers of 75% in favor, all are sure that the issue will be up for debate in the Senate in no time at all.
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