Senate Repeals Don't Ask Don't Tell

One of the unexpected, albeit probably temporary, benefits of the recent bipartisan agreement between the President and the Republican side of the congressional aisle regarding tax cuts and unemployment compensation may have come with yesterday's Senate vote to repeal the onerous "don't ask don't tell" policy in the U.S. military. This policy, in effect since the Clinton administration in the '90's, has had the effect of persecuting gays by denying them their right to reveal their own sexual orientation while in service to the country. I was surprised that several Republican senators crossed over to support the repeal, especially Nevada's John Ensign, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, and North Carolina's Richard Burr. Cool. I wonder whether, after Murkowski's encounter with the reactionary Tea Party during her recent Senate reelection campaign, she won't "go rogue" on occasions against her own party. Not that the Republicans are always wrong: I am just tired of this party-line block voting and would like for our elected representatives in government to vote according to their own personal and professional convictions and not just the way their hack party leaders order them to.

On the down side, I am dismayed to observe the continuing slide into a reactionary worldview by John McCain, who led the opposition to the repeal. McCain, for whom I initially was delighted in 2008 when he won the GOP nomination for president, used to really be a maverick at times against his own party's often overly conservative stances on social issues. Now he seems like a very bitter, angry old man every time I see him get up on the Senate floor to talk.

The repeal of "don't ask don't tell" was important, but still is only one step toward gays finally being accorded the basic human rights that straights enjoy in our society. In other areas, such as gay marriage, the struggle for progress goes on. Still, this vote was something to give me some hope for the future.