votos en el Senado para derogar la prohibición de los homosexuales servir abiertamente en las fuerzas armadas

Washington (CNN) — Prohibición de los militares de las personas abiertamente homosexuales servir en sus filas está un paso más cerca de terminar, después de que el Senado votó el sábado para derogar las fuerzas armadas’ “no preguntes, no se lo digas” política.

Ocho republicanos e independientes Joe Lieberman de Connecticut unieron a los demócratas de la cámara para apoyar la legislación, que pasó alrededor 3 pm. by a 65-31 margin. The bill needed a simple majority — meaning support from 51 of the Senate’s 100 miembros — to pass.

“I want to thank all of the gay men and women who are fighting for us today,” , dijo el senador. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who pushed hard for the measure. “We honor your service, and now we can do so openly.”

President Barack Obama will sign the bill into law next week, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a Twitter post moments after the Senate vote.

“Gay and lesbian service members — brave Americans who enable our freedoms — will no longer have to hide who they are,” Obama said in an e-mailed statement to supporters. “The fight for civil rights, a struggle that continues, will no longer include this one.”

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, en una declaración, that he’ll “approach this process deliberately, (making changes) only after careful consultation with the military service chiefs and our combatant commanders.”
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Clifford Stanley, a retired Marine and the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, voluntad “immediately proceed” to execute the Pentagon’s plan, Gates dijo.

The entire process, Collins estimates, will take “mes, not years” to complete. Hasta entonces, Gates said that “the current law and policy will remain in effect.”

Todavía, Usted. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, said Saturday afternoon that she believed no man or woman would be outed or kicked out of the military in the meantime.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, applauded Congress’s action. He and Gates were among the civilian and active-duty military leaders who had rallied for the change.

“Es lo que hay que hacer,” , dijo en una declaración. “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 y sus compañeros demócratas estaban presionando para una pronta derogación, antes de que el nuevo Congreso más conservador se asienta la primera semana de enero. Gates, advirtió de que la corte desafía a “no preguntes, no se lo digas” podría obligar a una derogación abrupta de la política, en lugar del proceso de la legislación que permitiría a los militares para gestionar el cambio en un plazo más largo.

La Cámara de Representantes actuó primero, pasando la medida — by a 250 a 175 margin — miércoles pasado. Cuatro días más tarde, Presidente de la Cámara Nancy Pelosi, D-California, ovacionado al Senado para seguir su ejemplo.

“La votación de hoy hito cierra la puerta a una injusticia fundamental,” Pelosi dijo en un comunicado. “Refleja un principio básico de nuestra nación: que cualquier persona que desea servir, asegurar y defender este país debe ser bienvenido, juzgado por sus habilidades, y honrados por su sacrificio.”

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, homosexual, bisexual and transgender equal rights group — dijo “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,” dijo. “Hoy, 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.

Usted. 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?”

Por último, eight of Graham’s Republican colleagues ended up supporting the repeal on Saturday. In addition to Collins, they were Sens. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Olympia Snowe of Maine, Lisa Murkowski de Alaska, Marque a Kirk de Illinois, Richard Burr de Carolina del Norte, John Ensign de Nevada y George Voinovich de Ohio.

Voinovich dijo que se decidió después de que el informe del Departamento de Defensa de la revisión de la política.

“Acepto sus conclusiones y el secretario Gates’ recomendación y la seguridad de que la derogación se llevará a cabo cuando la batalla eficacia de nuestras fuerzas está asegurada y los preparativos adecuados se han completado,” dijo.

El director ejecutivo de Estados miembros del servicio, la organización más grande de la nación de las tropas de los homosexuales y lesbianas, dijo después de la votación la clausura clave sábado que la aprobación de la legislación marcó una “paso histórico para este país” y “muy probable que sea un momento de cambio de vida para los gays y lesbianas tropas.”

Eso incluye a los hombres como 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, y los que han sido víctimas de esta política en los últimos años por fin empezar a ver cierto cierre y la redención en el horizonte.”

Fuente: CNN