Senate vote to end filibuster of National Defense Authorization Act falls short, blocking DADT repeal & DREAM Act
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force responded to the Senate’s failure to end a filibuster of the National Defense Authorization Act, blocking action on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal and the DREAM Act.
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey said:
Once again, politicians are playing politics with people’s lives. Filibustering the defense authorization bill to block action on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal and the DREAM Act — two measures that do justice to the fundamental principle of fairness — is a disappointment and disservice to our country. Seventy-eight percent of Americans support ending ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and countless others believe that young people should be provided a path to citizenship in the country they love and have always called home. Today’s Senate vote mocks those ideals. The senators who led and supported the filibuster effort should be ashamed.
Most Americans do not believe in a path for citizenship other than the legal way……visa first. Reid did us a disservice by combining dadt with the dream act. He is to blame. It doesn’t matter that the appropriations and the dadt repeal are worthy, the dream act isn’t. Personally I don’t like these ammendments that mean you have to vote for or against the whole thing…..it was packaged purely to score politcal points so the Dems can use it against the Repubs. But I think the Repubs win because more Americans are against the back-door citizenship part. Dadt repeal as a stand-alone bill would pass, and Reid knows it. It was packaged purposely to fail.
The majority of Americans are in favor of repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell”. The gay/lesbian community need to galvanize their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles to get out and vote out of office those who opposed the repeal. This is a gross injustice in this day and age. It’s archaic! There is power in numbers and we need to make all of our voices heard.