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This is urgent. Sen. John McCain is still threatening to hold the entire Department of Defense bill hostage, just to keep "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal from coming up for a vote.
He's blindly ignoring the thousands of calls from HRC supporters to the Senate since Monday (on top of hundreds of thousands over the past months). And he's blatantly contradicting himself: he said he'd support the will of troops, but now he's undermining a leaked Pentagon study that reveals 70 percent of military personnel don't think lifting the ban will have a negative impact.
What will it take to beat him? A full-court, 100-senator strategy to get this law repealed NOW.
The push to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has reached a fever pitch. And this week could make or break it.
Years of work could boil down to what happens this week. The Senate's "lame duck" session begins today – our last, best hope to end the discrimination this year.
When the new Congress shows up in January, the House will be under staunchly anti-LGBT leadership. We have no time to waste.
Today, as we launch full-page newspaper ads across the country, we need tens of thousands of supporters to back up those ads by joining HRC and the Courage Campaign to call on every single senator to end the discrimination NOW!
The last time the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" came up for a vote in the Senate, Sen. John McCain led Republicans in a filibuster of the national defense spending bill that contains the repeal. They blocked it from an up-or-down vote – even though nearly 8 in 10 Americans now favor repealing the law.
Before time runs out, we need Senate Democrats to bring the defense bill to the floor and we need Republicans to stop threatening to derail the entire thing – including critical military equipment and pay raises – just to keep this discriminatory law on the books.
Is it just me, or is it completely absurd that Senate Republicans would hold troops' funding hostage, just so they can ensure that lesbian and gay soldiers have to keep lying or be fired?
The ads we're launching today call out this hypocrisy for what it is: bigotry masked as patriotism.
It's critical that every single senator hears from us today. Even if your senators are already with us on this issue they need to know that their constituents have their backs as they stand up for what's right.
And no matter where your senators stand, speaking out today sends a bold message: It's going to take a lot more than a few anti-gay leaders in Congress to make us give up this fight. As long as injustice is written into our laws, we will not rest.
Momentum for repeal is high. President Obama has called on the Senate to act during this short session – an important first step of the many needed for him to fulfill the pledge he made in the State of the Union to end this law. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and military chaplains are also speaking out.
Still, repealing this law is no easy task. But if brave men and women are willing to risk their lives while hiding who they are, we must be unafraid to fail – and always, unceasingly, unafraid to fight.
Never giving up,
Joe Solmonese
President
https://secure3.convio.net/hrc/site/...-yet-then-call
Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell Now (DADT)
He's blindly ignoring the thousands of calls from HRC supporters to the Senate since Monday (on top of hundreds of thousands over the past months). And he's blatantly contradicting himself: he said he'd support the will of troops, but now he's undermining a leaked Pentagon study that reveals 70 percent of military personnel don't think lifting the ban will have a negative impact.
What will it take to beat him? A full-court, 100-senator strategy to get this law repealed NOW.
The push to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has reached a fever pitch. And this week could make or break it.
Years of work could boil down to what happens this week. The Senate's "lame duck" session begins today – our last, best hope to end the discrimination this year.
When the new Congress shows up in January, the House will be under staunchly anti-LGBT leadership. We have no time to waste.
Today, as we launch full-page newspaper ads across the country, we need tens of thousands of supporters to back up those ads by joining HRC and the Courage Campaign to call on every single senator to end the discrimination NOW!
The last time the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" came up for a vote in the Senate, Sen. John McCain led Republicans in a filibuster of the national defense spending bill that contains the repeal. They blocked it from an up-or-down vote – even though nearly 8 in 10 Americans now favor repealing the law.
Before time runs out, we need Senate Democrats to bring the defense bill to the floor and we need Republicans to stop threatening to derail the entire thing – including critical military equipment and pay raises – just to keep this discriminatory law on the books.
Is it just me, or is it completely absurd that Senate Republicans would hold troops' funding hostage, just so they can ensure that lesbian and gay soldiers have to keep lying or be fired?
The ads we're launching today call out this hypocrisy for what it is: bigotry masked as patriotism.
It's critical that every single senator hears from us today. Even if your senators are already with us on this issue they need to know that their constituents have their backs as they stand up for what's right.
And no matter where your senators stand, speaking out today sends a bold message: It's going to take a lot more than a few anti-gay leaders in Congress to make us give up this fight. As long as injustice is written into our laws, we will not rest.
Momentum for repeal is high. President Obama has called on the Senate to act during this short session – an important first step of the many needed for him to fulfill the pledge he made in the State of the Union to end this law. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and military chaplains are also speaking out.
Still, repealing this law is no easy task. But if brave men and women are willing to risk their lives while hiding who they are, we must be unafraid to fail – and always, unceasingly, unafraid to fight.
Never giving up,
Joe Solmonese
President
https://secure3.convio.net/hrc/site/...-yet-then-call
Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell Now (DADT)
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