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DADT Vote Today After 10:30AM

12/18/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire

Today is the vote for cloture on both the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the enactment of the DREAM Act. The repeal of DADT is a long and hard fought battle, and it will be necessary to see what happens going forward. To a certain degree, the detractors on the other side are right, should DADT be repealed, it will then be much easier for us to stand there and say that we bleed for this nation, but we already bleed for this nation. It will just be so much easier for people to see that we are just like them. To paraphrase William Shakespeare:

I am a lesbian. Hath not a lesbian eyes? Hath not a lesbian hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we shall resemble you in that. If a lesbian wrong a Christian, what is her humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a lesbian, what should her sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
The eyes of many a lesbian and gay man is watching, and many an ally of our rights are on these proceedings even as Senator Jeff Sessions gets up there and delivers his pretty speech trying to justify the segregation of this nation into the straights and the queers, the Whites and the non-Whites, and the rich and the poor.

Dr. Paula Brooks, the managing editor of LezGetReal said today about these proceedings

All I can say is Cardinal Wuerl would certainly be annoyed to know one of the candles burning in the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle this morning was lit for the passage of DADT repeal

Todd Beamer was a religious family man. Mark Bingham was gay, a PR executive and amateur rugby player. On September 11, 2001, when hijackers breached the cockpit of United Airlines Flight 93, overpowered the pilots, took control of the aircraft, and diverted it toward Washington, DC, Christian family man Beamer did not give a shit if Bingham was gay, he just cared that Bingham was a big mofo, who had the courage to stand up … and charge into the face of death with him … when he said, “You ready. Okay, let’s roll.”

And so it will be in the Us Military.

JD Smith of OutServe said “its game time – lets find out who truly supports the troops”

As the Zadroga bill has proven, the Republicans only support their props when it is convenient. The Zadroga bill is suppose to provide healthcare for many of the 9/11 first responders who rushed to the Twin Towers in the wake of the two attacks, but the Republicans have offered lame excuse after lame excuse regarding why it should not be given an up or down vote. The same is here for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Removing this stressor from the lesbian and gay soldiers serving in the military would benefit the services, as well as making sure that we do not discharge many fine mission critical specialists. However, many Republicans, including Senators John McCain and Bob Corker are so desperate to abandon the troops that they would be more than willing to derail the START treaty to try and make sure that DADT is not repealed.

The following Senators are up for grabs on repeal, hopefully they will vote for cloture. It looks good for the Democrats to have the votes with Senators Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Lisa Murkowski and Scott Brown voting for cloture.  The proceedings can be seen on CSpan 2.

–John Ensign (R-NV);
–George LeMieux (R-FL);
–Richard Lugar (R-IN);
–Judd Gregg (R-NH);
–George Voinovich (R-OH);
–Kit Bond (R-MO);
–Mark Kirk (R-IL);
–Kent Conrad (D-ND);
–Joe Manchin (D-WV)

“Do you hear the people sing. . .”