Senate Committee, House Approve DADT Compromise

DADT:

UPDATE: The House has also passed the measure.

On a 234-194 vote, the House voted to advance the repeal as an amendment to a Defense Department funding bill moving through Congress.

The Senate Armed Services Committee has approved the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell compromise that Obama has been working on.

In a closed session Thursday evening, the Senate Armed Services Committee endorsed the compromise, 16-12. The measure still faces a vote in the full Senate. The House, meanwhile, was poised to vote on the compromise by Friday.

The compromise between White House and congressional negotiators would not formally lift the ban on gays until the Pentagon completes a review, due Dec. 1, and President Obama and top Defense leaders certify that ending the 1993 prohibition will not affect military readiness.

It appears that some military leaders are upset that Congress is going to pass this legislation now, instead of when the DADT study is complete. But many proponents have feared that waiting until next session — after the Republicans could get major gains in the midterm elections — could severely hurt the chances of the bill getting passed.

We’re assuming that despite this Congressional action, the hunger strike is still on.

And if you need even more explanation about what the compromise is, here’s Rachel Maddow talking about it (as though we needed an excuse to give you more Maddow):

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Sarah

Sarah lives in Chicago with her partner and her big white Great Dane. She is a lawyer by day and a beer brewer/bread baker/knitter by night. She & her partner are currently learning how to grow their own food, and eventually they hope to move to a small farm outside the city. In 2009-2010, before jetting off to law school, Sarah was Autostraddle's Managing Editor.

Sarah has written 127 articles for us.

5 Comments

  2. Maddow called herself a Pinko Hippie! That’s amazing. Also amazing? These steps toward repealing DADT.

  3. It is wonderful that steps are finally being made! However since I am in the military I have to be the pessimist.. I will believe it when I see it. When it does happen I will be a happy little gaymo soldier.

  4. ok so I’ve been offline having marathon lezzie sex, and when I finally got online today I was super excited to see what AS and the dear AS commenters would have to say about the legislative repeal of DADT.

    What the heck guys, three comments?! That’s it? Clearly Lady Gaga needs to come save this post.

  5. I keep trying to digest the viewpoints and opinions of AS, my FB gays, sundry twits, news articles, etc. and I honestly, honestly don’t know what I feel. I can’t reconcile them all together into a well-informed, educated, unwavering position because they do seem to be mutually exclusive most of the time and steeped in self-interest, deception and self-serving slights of hand / word.

    I feel like I need a triangulated pro / con list just to somehow figure out what the fucking TRUTH is, for myself, and then I just get so despondent and frustrated that the truth is so politically difficult to assess that I just give up (and that, I tell myself, is temporary).

    There. That’s my comment. Useless!

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