BREAKING NEWS! Senate Votes to Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell Bill 63 - 33!

With this vote it will be difficult for the services to prevent or limit the creation of associations of homosexual servicemembers in the service academies and in fighting units.

It was hard enough running a Battalion, Regiment or large ship like an aircraft carrier in operational situations: it will be much harder now.

Bullshit.

But by all means, refuse to accept the reality. You only exhaust yourself.

If detrimental tension about sexuality exists in the front lines, then you're right it will continue. At least now it will not be solely the burden of the gay solders.

Ain't no molehill high enough
R
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It's entirely possible and quite probable that with time, the tensions in the more open environment to which this repeal will lead will work themselves out, but what McCain was arguing is that the consequence of this tension on the battlefield is too great to rely on time and communication to sort out.

Quote:

It's entirely possible and quite probable that with time, the tensions in the more open environment to which this repeal will lead will work themselves out, but what McCain was arguing is that the consequence of this tension on the battlefield is too great to rely on time and communication to sort out.

Yes we going to need to keep those damn blacks out of combat units.

Oh sorry my time travel get me confused at times.

So a purpose of this bill is to make life as miserable for straight soldiers on the front lines as it has been for gay ones?

If sexual tension is detrimental to our ability to wage war on the front lines, why wouldn't a better solution be to eliminate the source of tension rather than make sure it's effects are spread evenly?

It's entirely possible and quite probable that with time, the tensions in the more open environment to which this repeal will lead will work themselves out, but what McCain was arguing is that the consequence of this tension on the battlefield is too great to rely on time and communication to sort out.

John McCain's Inglorious DADT Moment
By Garance Franke-Ruta

In the end, eight Republican senators cast their votes to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. armed forces, repealing the 17-year-old "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

But Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) did not join them and used his time on the Senate floor Saturday to stand athwart history yelling stop.

"Today is a very sad day," McCain announced, detailing his continuing opposition to allowing gay and lesbian soldiers to be open about their sexuality.

"There will be high-fives over all the liberal bastions of America," he predicted, from "the elite schools that bar military recruiters from campus" to "the salons of Georgetown" and the "talk shows" where people -- "most of whom have never have served in the military" -- will crow over the law's repeal.

Allowing gays to serve openly in the Marines would prove a potentially deadly distraction McCain said, quoting from a Marine Corps Commandant warning, "and I don't want to permit that opportunity to happen."

Liberal blogs ThinkProgress and FireDogLake have highlighted some of the excerpts of his remarks.

Eight Republican Senators voted in favor of repeal of DADT: Scott Brown (Mass.); Richard Burr (NC); Susan Collins (of Maine, and a co-sponsor of the repeal effort); John Ensign (Nevada); Mark Kirk (Illinois); Lisa Murkowski (Alaska); Olympia Snowe (Maine) and George Voinovich of Ohio.

McCain's vigorous opposition to the DADT repeal is not the first time he's found himself swimming against the tide of history. As a congressman in 1983, he voted against the creation of a federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- a vote he later regretted.

"On the Martin Luther King issue, we all learn, OK? We all learn," he told NBC in 1999, discussing his vote. "I will admit to learning, and I hope that the people that I represent appreciate that, too. I voted in 1983 against the recognition of Martin Luther King....I regret that vote."

This time, however, McCain is in the mainstream of his party in casting the socially conservative vote; in 1983 the majority of House Republicans voted in favor of the creation of the MLK holiday.

i have known a few gay men, i found that most of the time the people they were attracted to were other gay men, i'm always amazed by guys who get uptight by guys checking them out, big deal, i look at women that i'm not gonna hit on or harass, sometimes you see someone attractive, it can be flattering

i've never had to say, you got the wrong person, more than once to any gay man i've ever met, including a great night that me and a girlfriend, a buddy and his girlfriend and two gay guys she worked with spent at a gay club in toronto i the late 80's, the music was amazing

tombrazelton Tom Brazelton
by wilw
Read about Senate vote to repeal DADT on Twitter. Turned on CNN for more information and they're talking about Tron: Legacy. #fail

I'm not arguing that the fighting men who have expressed concern over the repeal can reasonably support their concern, or that their concern should have been the deciding factor, but I don't think their concern should be blithely dismissed, and the officers and politicans who took postions based on it should be castigated