U.S. House vote repeals "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

FreakyLocz14 said:
Still, signing an order would be a step in the right direction. Slavery was abolished first by executive order, and then it was further abolished by the legislature. I find no excuse as to why Obama can't repeal DADT with the stroke of a fan. He's one of his most loyal voting bases after African-Americans down.
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Well looking upon this with the points brought up earlier, it is better to do so legislatively to gain some sort of consensus on the issue. So President Obama can point out that he did not act on the issue unilaterally. It also brings more pressure to bear on Congress to act on the issue without an Executive Order, Congress would most likely just kick the issue down the road if it is done by the executive branch.

While yes, he could have simply done an executive order (as I was advocating for a while now) it is actually a more powerful force of law if it is done legislatively, as signing executive orders would bring into conflict the 1993 law passed by Congress and the Executive Order that the President would have hypothetically signed.

And yeah even if this fails, he has 2 (or 6) MORE YEARS TO ACT UPON THE ISSUE ANYWAYS. LOL
 
Netto Azure said:

Well looking upon this with the points brought up earlier, it is better to do so legislatively to gain some sort of consensus on the issue. So President Obama can point out that he did not act on the issue unilaterally. It also brings more pressure to bear on Congress to act on the issue without an Executive Order, Congress would most likely just kick the issue down the road if it is done by the executive branch.

While yes, he could have simply done an executive order (as I was advocating for a while now) it is actually a more powerful force of law if it is done legislatively, as signing executive orders would bring into conflict the 1993 law passed by Congress and the Executive Order that the President would have hypothetically signed.

And yeah even if this fails, he has 2 (or 6) MORE YEARS TO ACT UPON THE ISSUE ANYWAYS. LOL
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Yes, he does have time. He could show his commitment to the issue by using an Executive Order as a back-up plan if a legislative repeal fails. If he's worried about political pundits, he can do this during his second term. That is, if he hasn't pissed people off too much over this to risk re-election.
 
I'm glad to see this taking effect. It's been long overdue for certain, and while DADT made logical sense in 1993, most people who accepted it only did so because they felt it would be a temporary measure as homosexuals integrated themselves into the military. Here it is in 2010 and we just now repealed it...that's way too long. It should have been removed by 2000 or 2003. :<
 
But the sources cited in the previous posts say it'll take 60 days to implement. Not soon enough in my opinion.
 
Better late than never. It's just regular procedure and, after 20 years of injustice, a couple of months more or less aren't going to be so horrible, specially now that it's law.
 
DADT never made sense to me. Here are military is completely voluntary and yet people who are willing to join and pick up arms to fight are being turned away because they happen to like people with the same genitals? They should be welcoming anyone who is willing to fight and is in good mental and physical health, regardless of sexual orientation. I'm thrilled to hear this is being repealed.
 
I'm glad this is being repealed. We need more common sense in this country. It doesn't matter one bit whether or not you like boys or girls; if you want to fight for your country you should be able to! If they ban homesexuals just because people might get uncomfortable around them, then using that logic they might as well ban anybody from joining, since anybody can be uncomfortable around anyone.
 

US President Barack Obama has signed a landmark law allowing gay people serving in the military to be open about their sexuality.

Mr Obama said the law meant that tens of thousands of Americans would no longer be asked to live a lie.

He had campaigned to change the 1993 "don't ask, don't tell" law, overturned by Congress last week.

More than 13,000 service members have been dismissed under the policy, enacted in 1993 as a compromise.

Opponents argue that the change will damage troop morale at a time of war.

But earlier this month, a Pentagon report said that allowing openly gay troops would have little impact on the cohesion of US forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The outgoing Senate and House of Representatives approved the new law last week, with moderate Republicans joining the Democratic majority.
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It's certainly a great ending for this Congress in terms of the old tired Culture Wars. And of course a great boost for our overstretched military. :)
 
I am glad to see such a ridiculous law being repealed.
 
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