Here is some shocking, yet expected news regarding ANOTHER delay in bringing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to a vote in the Senate. You can view our DADT Senate Public Whip Count here.
“Fearful that delaying action on “don’t ask, don’t tell” until after the midterms could potentially kill the measure for the year, repeal advocates are pushing Senate majority leader Harry Reid to schedule a Senate floor vote on the defense funding bill in September.
“I’m a little anxious,” said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. “The reality is the number of legislative days in this Congress are rapidly dwindling, and we need to see that the defense authorization bill up on the Senate floor in September.”
When Congress returns to Washington next week, the Senate will have until October 8 when they leave for the midterms to take the crucial vote on the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act, which contains the provision to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
But one political operative and repeal advocate noted the bill will be competing for attention with new legislation Democrats are pushing that would provide tax breaks for businesses.
“The Democrats are trying to figure out what they can effectively do in those four weeks to distinguish themselves from Republicans before the midterm elections,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “The tax cut issue may provide that contrast.”
The source wagered that if the Senate floor vote does not take place before the midterms, the defense funding bill would have a “50-50” shot of passing before the end of this Congress. If it is not finalized by year’s end, the repeal effort will die.
We cannot let the defense budget bill slide any longer – it needs to move on the Senate floor the week of September 20th. This would be extraordinary to hold up funding for the troops, for their pay and benefits, their equipment, rifles and armor.
U.S. Sen. John McCain has been a strong and vocal opponent from the start and it is critical that we beat back any filibuster threat, defeat attempts to strike repeal, and defeat any crippling amendments.
Every senator needs to hear from us now, especially in the 10 key states where our combined SLDN and HRC field teams are working right now: AR, IN, MT, NE, NH, NV, ND, SD, OH, VA.
We need supporters to tell their senators to follow the lead of Chairman Carl Levin on the senate floor.
The pressure will also continue on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; we need to push for a clear commitment that he’ll move the bill the week of September 20th.
Without the defense budget bill passed before lame duck session, many Republicans have made it clear they will only agree to a Continuing Resolution to keep funding the Defense Dept.
If a Continuing Resolution is passed, the hard earned House passage of repeal dies. Why is this important? Recall, repeal advocates made it to the House floor vote by bypassing the conservative House Armed Services Committee as we didn’t have the support of the Democratic Chairman, Ike Skelton.
Every member of the House that voted for the Murphy amendment and every senator on the Senate Armed Services Committee who voted for repeal should be pushing the Senate to schedule a vote ASAP.
If the defense budget bill doesn’t move to the Senate floor by the end of September, DADT repeal may not happen for SEVERAL MORE YEARS.
How will repeal die if there is no vote this year? If Republicans take back the House in November, as many are beginning to predict, SLDN doesn’t see Speaker Boehner pushing a vote on DADT next year.
SLDN CONTINUES PUSHING NATIONAL ACTION ALERT AHEAD OF SENATE REPEAL VOTE: http://bit.ly/bjzB9Y
Here is a list of Key Senators in the DADT repeal vote:
Wonderful segment on the state of the LGBT movement from InTheLife Media. The clear and emerging stars of this segment (and rising stars of our movement) are Robin McGehee, Director of GetEqual, John Aravosis, Founder of AmericaBlog, and Richard Socarides, former Clinton LGBT Advisor. Thank you for all that you do to make our movement stronger with your voices.
HatTip: Gay Rights Media:
“We’re willing to take action and it may be non-traditional action. We’re tired of the lobbying and the phone banking and the letter writing that doesn’t seem to be getting the progress and the rights that we are deserving of. Many of our members have tried that method. What I think that’s going on with the national organizations is the understanding that they are serving in the suites of power but the streets of activism are tired and fed up. The people that try to offer that ‘change is coming’ and ‘we’re seeing progress’ are happy with minimal change and crumbs in my opinion. Even at the national dinner for the Human Rights Campaign [President Obama] made the statement that ‘We’re friends aren’t we?’ I’m not asking him to do something that he didn’t let come out of his own lips. I’m wanting him to be held accountable on the things that he’s already promised us. That same accountability goes to the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and anyone who walks into a meeting with him. When they accept the minimal change and the crumbs what they’re actually doing is simply barely feeding a person who’s already starving from injustice.” ~Robin McGehee, Co-Founder of @GetEQUAL
“I think they kind of think that they sort of met their gay quota because they did Hate Crimes. Come November, it’s over. There’s talk of losing the House in the November Congressional elections. And look at how hard it is to get this passed now. We don’t even have a repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell passed. Imagine what’s going to happen if we lose twenty or thirty or forty more Democrats. And we’re supposed to sit back and just wait. Well I’ve got news for you, our community’s got about two or three months left, before the Obama era becomes, I think, a bust. We’re going to lose the Congress, we’re going to lose enough seats that it’s just not going to matter.” ~John @Aravosis, Editor of @AMERICAblog
“The Congress of the United States, the Presidency of the Unites States – they’ve been passively denying us our rights for centuries and actively denying us our rights for decades. It’s time for that to stop but we need to put our foot down.” ~@MaraKeisling, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality
“It is not enough to look back in wonder at how far we have come; those who came before us did not strike a blow against injustice only so that we would allow injustice to fester in our time. That means removing the barriers of prejudice and misunderstanding that still exist in America.” -Democratic Party Platform, 2008
President Obama promised to be a “fierce advocate” for LGBT Americans. But while making modest progress on a scant few issues, on the major campaign promises made to our community, the President and the Democratic party have failed to keep their commitments.
There has been little, if any, pressure from the White House for votes on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). The administration continues to send mixed signals on the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT). And we’ve been told not to expect the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to even be considered until President Obama’s second term. In the last two weeks alone, we were angered that the Obama administration continued to defend DOMA in the courts — last June, the administration’s lawyers even compared loving gay relationships to incest and pedophilia — and we were saddened that the White House and the Democratic party refused to help us defeat anti-gay ballot initiatives in Maine and Washington state. LGBT Americans, our families, and our friends kept our promise at the ballot box, we now expect President Obama to keep his in the White House.
Until the Democratic Congress passes, and President Obama signs, legislation enacting ENDA, repealing DADT, and repealing DOMA, we ask you to join us in pledging to postpone contributions to the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for America, and the Obama campaign. This temporary (we hope) boycott is sponsored by AMERICAblog, and cosponsored by Daily Kos, Michelangelo Signorile, and Paul Sousa, among others.
This isn’t forever, the Democrats have it in their power to end this today — all it takes is choosing to keep their promise.
From Civil Right leader and LGBT activist David Mixner. You can read the entire piece here.
First and foremost, the LGBT struggle is one of the great civil rights movement of our times. Given that, quite honestly, there is simply no logical personal or political reason for President Obama to be against marriage equality. At this stage there can only be two conclusions: that he is a political coward or that he does indeed hold prejudice against LGBT citizens. Nothing else fits at this stage. No one can make any more excuses and no one can justify his position any longer. Looking at the facts, the statistics, the political reality and at the President’s current position one can only
say “Shame on you, Mr. President. Shame on you.”
This weekend two factors forced me to focus on his lack of leadership on this issue. One was a brilliant article in the New Republic by Richard Just entitled simply “Disgrace” and the other was a chart published in The New York Timesshowing the massive change in support across the country for marriage equality. Combine that with a recent CNN poll that showed 52% of Americans believe now that marriage equality is a Constitutional Right and you see how ridiculous his position has become before the public.
We’re heading into the end of summer, and there has been both an eerie silence from Congress and whispers of surrender from the White House about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Despite these challenges from our elected leaders, GetEQUAL is determined to pull out all the stops to get ENDA passed in 2010.
We’ve heard promises for 40 years that this legislation will be passed — but we have a moral obligation to speak out while it is still perfectly legal for employers in 29 states to fire someone for their sexual orientation and in 38 states to fire someone for their gender identity or expression.
Our elected leaders tell us that this legislation is “complicated” and we should continue waiting.
But while Members of Congress are back in their home districts trying to save their jobs, we are left waiting for legislation that would safeguard ours. There are millions of LGBTQ Americans who are at risk of losing their jobs, at a moment’s notice, because there are no federal job protections in place.
This isn’t a legislative issue — this is a moral issue. And we’re targeting legislators in specific states who have not yet shown the moral courage to support this legislation.
We’re tired of legislators telling us that basic job protections for LGBTQ Americans are politically inconvenient — that some are more concerned with securing their own jobs than those of their constituents. We’re tired of being asked to wait — we’ve been waiting for 40 years.
GetEQUAL has created a targeted list of legislators who we think need to hear from you in order to pass this legislation in 2010, as promised. [1] Every day that this legislation is not passed, there are LGBTQ Americans scared to be “out” at work, fearful of losing work stability, discriminated against for not conforming to gender stereotypes, or fired for acting “too gay.”
We appreciate your ongoing commitment to taking bold action to secure LGBTQ equality, and we look forward to connecting you with our local organizers on the ground in your state!
Another great civil disobedience day exposing injustice. Read full article here.
On the day hundreds of gay and lesbian couples statewide planned to obtain their long-awaited marriage licenses, a crowd of about 50 people gathered at the county clerk’s office Thursday to protest a federal judge’s stay of a federal ruling that Proposition 8is unconstitutional.
Three people were taken away in plastic handcuffs by sheriff’s deputies early in the demonstration and an additional six people were removed later. A deputy said they were detained for blocking access to a county office.
“It is not enough to look back in wonder at how far we have come; those who came before us did not strike a blow against injustice only so that we would allow injustice to fester in our time. That means removing the barriers of prejudice and misunderstanding that still exist in America.” -
