The US Senate dealt a potentially deadly blow Thursday to efforts to repeal a ban on gays serving openly in the US military, in another setback to a "deeply disappointed" President Barack Obama. Lawmakers voted 57-40 - three votes short of the 60 needed - to move forward with annual military spending legislation that included a measure ending the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. The motion was a defeat for Obama, who has made repealing the 1993 law a priority in the year-end "lame duck" session of Congress.
"This law weakens our national security, diminishes our military readiness and violates fundamental American principles of fairness, integrity and equality," he said in a statement. He urged senators to take up the issue again before the end of the year, noting Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen and a majority of Americans were on his side.
Republicans, who oppose scrapping the ban, will take control of the House of Representatives from January and Democrats in the Senate will see their majority dwindle to 53 out of 100, making repeal even less likely in the next session of Congress. The law, adopted as a compromise under former president Bill Clinton, requires gay and lesbian troops to keep their sexual orientation to themselves or face discharge.
Senator Susan Collins of Maine was the lone Republican voting in favour of ending the ban, but she was not joined by any of her colleagues, who say it would disrupt military discipline and readiness at a time when US troops are fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Immediately after the vote, Collins and independent Senator Joe Lieberman vowed to jointly introduce a separate bill to end the ban, saying a stand-alone measure had better chances of garnering the necessary support from three fifths of the Senate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi backed the move, saying "an army of allies stands ready in the House to pass a stand-alone repeal of the discriminatory policy."
Activists said they were "deeply disappointed" that the repeal had failed in a procedural vote despite apparent support from enough senators in recent days. US Army veteran Aubrey Sarvis of the Servicemembers Legal Defence Network called the delay an "outrage" against troops, including the more than 14,000 estimated to have lost their jobs under the policy.
Urging supporters to protest outside the Senate on Friday, Sarvis warned that "history will hold these senators accountable and so will many of their constituents." Log Cabin Republicans executive director R. Clarke Cooper said his gay rights group was "angered" and "disappointed."
Echoing the thoughts of other supporters, Human rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese vowed to keep fighting until the ban "is left in the dustbin of history." Collins had said she supported the repeal but had warned it would likely fail if Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did not come up with a "fair process" to ensure Republican support. A small group of Republicans who supported ending the ban had wanted more time to negotiate the voting process first. The repeal measure was folded into a massive military spending bill, which also was blocked, prompting a veterans group to call the delay in funding a betrayal of the troops.
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