"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Is Dead !

After pussyfooting around for the last two years, the United States Senate has finally voted to end legalized bigotry in the United States Military.   Yesterday the Senate agreed to the bill passed by the House of Representatives last week.   The vote was 65 to 31.

Don't get me wrong.   There is, and probably will continue to be, too much bigotry in our armed forces.   As with the country as a whole, racism, misogyny, and other forms of bigotry will probably still happen in the military (and hopefully it will be dealt with when it occurs).   But the bigotry over sexual preference was different because it was legal for the military to discriminate against gays and lesbians.   Now that is finally over, and all forms of bigotry are outlawed in the military.

I have to give credit to eight Republican senators who ignored their party leadership and voted for equality.   They are Snowe (Maine), Brown (Massachusetts), Burr (North Carolina), Ensign (Nevada), Collins (Maine), Murkowski (Alaska), Kirk (Illinois), and Voinovich (Ohio).   Both independents also voted with the majority to repeal DADT -- Sanders (Vermont) and Lieberman (Connecticut).   The rest of the 65 senators voting to repeal were Democrats.

Sadly, there were 31 senators (and 174 House members) who supported the continuation of legalized bigotry in the military.   These senators (and House members) obviously don't believe in the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution which guarantees equal treatment for all United States citizens.   The 31 senators who believe that some Americans should be more equal than other Americans are:

McCain (Arizona)
Alexander (Tennessee)
Barrasso (Wyoming)
Bennett (Utah)
Bond (Missouri)
Brownback (Kansas)
Chambliss (Georgia)
Coburn (Oklahoma)
Cochran (Mississippi)
Corker (Tennessee)
Cornyn (Texas)
Crapo (Idaho)
DeMint (South Carolina)
Enzi (Wyoming)
Graham (South Carolina)
Grassley (Iowa)
Hutchison (Texas)
Inhofe (Oklahoma)
Isakson (Georgia)
Johanns (Nebraska)
Kyl (Arizona)
LeMieux (Florida)
Lugar (Indiana)
McConnell (Kentucky)
Risch (Idaho)
Roberts (Kansas)
Sessions (Alabama)
Shelby (Alabama)
Thune (South Dakota)
Vitter (Louisiana)
Wicker (Mississippi)

May there names live forever in infamy for their bigoted votes.