US Senate overturns ban on openly gay troops

ALLOWING gays and lesbians to serve openly in the US military is a step toward equality, advocates say, but a fight for other social changes such as gay marriage still lies ahead.

The Senate voted on Saturday to end the 17-year ban on openly gay troops, overturning the Clinton-era policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“It’s one step in a very long process of becoming an equal rights citizen,” said Warren Arbury of Savannah, Georgia, who served in the Army for seven years, including three combat tours, before being kicked out two years ago under the policy.

He said he planned to re-enlist once the policy is abolished.

“Even though this is really huge, I look at it as a chink in a very, very long chain,” he added.

Supporters declared the vote a civil rights milestone.

Aaron Belkin, director of the California-based Palm Centre — a think-tank on the issue — said the vote “ushers in a new era in which the largest employer in the United States treats gays and lesbians like human beings.”

For thousands of years, he said, one of the key markers for first-class citizenship in any nation is the right to serve in the military, and Saturday’s vote “is a historic step toward that.”

Repeal means that for the first time in US history, gays will be openly acceptedby the military and can acknowledge their sexual orientation without fear of being discharged. More than 13,500 service members have been dismissed under the 1993 law. Before that, they had been explicitly barred from military service since World War I.

The change won’t take immediate effect, however. The legislation says the president and his top military advisers must certify that lifting the ban won’t hurt troops’ fighting ability. After that, there’s a 60-day waiting period for the military.

Conservative organisations said the vote didn’t reflect the sentiments of rank-and-file military members and should not have taken place so close to the end of the current session of Congress.

“The issue that really disturbs me more than anything else is that legislation that’s controversial tends to be done in lame-duck sessions when a number of the elected representatives are no longer accountable to the people,” said Len Deo, president of the New Jersey Family Policy Council.

“It is time to close this chapter in our history,” Obama said in a statement. “It is time to recognise that sacrifice, valour 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 favour of repeal. The House had passed an identical version of the bill, 250-175, earlier this week.

Supporters hailed the 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.