Senaat stemme verbod te herroep oor gays openlik wat in militêre

Washington (CNN) — Die weermag se verbod op die openlik gay mense bedien binne sy geledere is een stap nader aan eindig, nadat die Senaat het Saterdag die gewapende magte te herroep’ “vra nie, nie vertel” beleid.

Agt Republikeine en onafhanklike Joe Lieberman van Connecticut by die kamer se Demokrate die wetgewing om terug te, wat geslaag het om 3 pm. deur 'n 65-31 marge. Die wetsontwerp wat nodig is 'n eenvoudige meerderheid — beteken die ondersteuning van 51 van die Senaat se 100 lede — om te slaag.

“Ek wil al die gay mans en vroue wat veg vir ons vandag te bedank,” gesê Sen. Susan Collins, 'n Maine Republikeinse wat hard gestoot vir die meet. “Ons eer jou diens, en nou kan ons so openlik te doen.”

President Barack Obama sal volgende week die wetsontwerp teken in die wet, White House pers sekretaris Robert Gibbs gesê in 'n Twitter post oomblikke nadat die Senaat stem.

“Gay en lesbiese lede — dapper Amerikaners wat ons vryheid in staat stel om — sal nie meer om weg te steek wat hulle is,” Obama het gesê in 'n e-pos verklaring ondersteuners. “Die stryd vir burgerregte, 'n stryd wat steeds, sal nie langer hierdie een.”

Verdediging Sekretaris Robert Gates het gesê, in 'n verklaring, dat hy sal “hierdie proses doelbewus nader, (die maak van veranderinge) slegs na deeglike konsultasie met die militêre diens hoofmanne en ons vegter bevelvoerders.”
DROOM Wet versuim om vorentoe te beweeg
Die geskiedenis van 'vra nie, nie vertel’

Clifford Stanley, 'n afgetrede Marine en die Onder Sekretaris van Verdediging vir Personeel en Gereedheid, sal “onmiddellik voort te gaan” die Pentagon se plan uit te voer, Gates het gesê.

Die hele proses, Collins skat, sal neem “maande, nie jaar” te voltooi. Tot dan, Gates het gesê dat “Die huidige wet en beleid sal van krag bly.”

Nog steeds, Jy. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, gesê Saterdagmiddag dat sy geglo het geen man of vrou sou outed of uitgeskop van die weermag in die tussentyd.

Adm. Mike Mullen, voorsitter van die Gesamentlike Chiefs van Personeel, toegejuig kongres se optrede. Hy en Gates was onder die burgerlike en aktiewe plig militêre leiers wat vir die verandering geweet het.

“Dit is die regte ding om te doen,” het hy gesê in 'n verklaring. “No longer will able men and women who want to serve and sacrifice for their country have to sacrifice their integrity to do so. We will be a better military as a result.”

“Don’t ask-don’t tell” became law in 1993, after opposition ballooned to then newly elected President Bill Clinton’s plan to lift the military’s complete ban on gay service members. The policy stopped the practice of asking service members if they are gay, but still called for the dismissal of openly gay service members.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Saturday’s vote a “historic step forward … toward a more perfect union and a more perfect reflection of our core values.”

A Pentagon study released earlier this month concluded that allowing openly gay or lesbian troops to serve in the military would have little lasting impact on the U.S. armed forces. Opposition to the change was much higher in Army and Marine combat units than in the military as a whole.

Obama and fellow Democrats were pushing for a speedy repeal, before the more conservative incoming Congress is seated the first week of January. Gates warned that court challenges to “vra nie, nie vertel” could force an abrupt repeal of the policy, rather than the process in the legislation that would allow the military to manage the change on a longer timetable.

The House of Representatives acted first, passing the measure — deur 'n 250 te 175 marge — last Wednesday. Vier dae later, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Kalifornië, cheered the Senate for following suit.

“Today’s landmark vote closes the door on a fundamental unfairness,” Pelosi said in a statement. “It reflects a core principle in our nation: that anyone who wishes to serve, secure and defend this country should be welcomed, judged by their abilities, and honored for their sacrifice.”

Gay rights groups cheered the bill’s passage, sending out congratulatory statements soon after a key cloture vote Saturday morning paved the way for the final tally in the afternoon. After that first vote, repeal supporters hugged and shook hands in the corridor off the Senate floor, and Lieberman said one of his aides reported “great jubiliation” at the White House as well.

Joe Solmonese, the president of the Human Rights Campaign — a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equal rights group — gesê “America lived up to its highest ideals of freedom and equality” with the vote.

“Plenty of people had already planned the funeral for this legislation,” het hy gesê. “Vandag, we pulled out a victory from what was almost certain defeat just a few days ago.”

While Democrats roundly rallied behind the policy change, Republicans largely opposed it.

Jy. Lindsay Graham, R-South Carolina, cited a Marine Corps commandant as saying he believes that “changing this policy this way would cause distraction among the Marine Corps to the point that he is worried about increased casualties.”

“Let’s hope he’s wrong,” Graham said Saturday, “but you’ve got to ask yourself, is he crazy to say that?”

Uiteindelik, eight of Graham’s Republican colleagues ended up supporting the repeal on Saturday. In addition to Collins, they were Sens. Scott Brown van Massachusetts, Olympia Snowe of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Richard Burr of North Carolina, John Ensign of Nevada and George Voinovich of Ohio.

Voinovich said he made up his mind after the reviewing the Defense Department’s report on the policy.

“I accept its findings and Secretary Gates’ recommendation and reassurance that the repeal will be implemented when the battle effectiveness of our forces is assured and proper preparations have been completed,” het hy gesê.

The executive director of Servicemembers United, the nation’s largest organization of gay and lesbian troops, said after the key cloture vote Saturday that the legislation’s passage marked a “historic step forward for this country” en “very likely be a life-changing moment for gay and lesbian troops.”

That includes men such as Alexander Nicholson, a former multi-lingual Army interrogator discharged under the policy.

While noting a certification and “yet-to-be-determined implementation period” awaits, he said Saturday, “Those who defend our freedom while living in fear for their careers will finally breathe a sigh of relief tonight, and those who have fallen victim to this policy in years past will finally begin to see true closure and redemption on the horizon.”

Bron: CNN