PFAW was just as disappointed as anyone to see last Thursday’s procedural defeat of the FY11 Defense authorization bill.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has been a failed experiment in discrimination—it has kept countless patriotic Americans from serving their country in the military, and sent thousands of brave men and women packing after honorable careers in the armed forces. For too long, an unjust, ineffective, and unpopular policy has been kept in place by the divisive politics of the far-right fringe. As Sec. Gates has acknowledged, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell won’t hold up for long in the court of law. The Senate’s refusal to end the policy at Sec. Gates’ request—and to sink an important Defense bill along with it—is short-sighted and irresponsible, and puts right-wing politics ahead of national security.

But we have called on you to keep fighting, in particular on behalf of S. 4023 – the stand-alone repeal bill introduced by Senator Lieberman, with Senators Collins, Gillibrand, Mark Udall, and 38 other cosponsors (at press time).

Last night, a Department of Defense Authorization bill that contained the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was successfully blocked, falling three votes short of the 60 needed for the bill to get an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. But there’s good news… Several senators who voted to block the bill did so not because they oppose repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell but because they had procedural objections to how the bill was being pushed forward.

Shortly after the vote, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) announced they were introducing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal as a stand-alone bill and expressed confidence that they had more than the 60 votes required to move the bill forward. It’s been rare in recent years that we could count Sens. Lieberman and Collins as allies in the fight for progress on many of the issues we care about. But in this instance, they deserve to be commended. They are matching their words with action and moving a bill which could, once and for all, be the final nail in the coffin for the discriminatory policy of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Help shore up your senators’ support for repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by calling them now and urging them to vote YES on repeal.

Capitol Switchboard – (202) 224-3121

Last Friday, repeal advocates gathered on Capitol Hill to make sure that the Senate keeps fighting. From Metro Weekly:

I attended the rally and was heartened by the passionate voices emanating from the podium. More information about those speakers, including additional video, is available here and here.