U.S. Senate votes to drop military gay ban

TheU.S. Senate agreedSaturday to do away with themilitary's 17-year ban on openly gay troops and sent President Barack Obama legislation to overturn the Clinton-era policy known as "don't ask, don't tell."

Obama is expected to sign the bill into law next week, although changes to military policy probably wouldn't take effect for at least several months.

Under the bill, the president and his top military advisers must first certify that lifting the ban won't hurt troops' ability to fight. After that, the military would have a 60-day waiting period.

Therepeal would mean that, for the first time in U.S.history, gays would be openly accepted by the armed forces and could acknowledge their sexual orientation without fear of being kicked out.

More than 13,500 service members have been dismissed under the 1993 policy.

"It is time to close this chapter in our history," Obama said in a release. "It is time to recognize that sacrifice, valour and integrity are no more defined by sexual orientation than they are by race or gender, religion or creed."

The Senate voted 65-31 to pass the bill, with eight Republicans siding with 55 Democrats and two independents in favour of repealing the policy.

Approved by House

The House of Representatives had passed an identical version of the bill, 250-175, earlier in theweek.

Supporters hailed the Senate vote as a major step forward for gay rights. Many activists hope that integrating openly gay troops within the military will lead to greater acceptance in the civilian world, as it did for blacks after President Harry Truman's 1948 executive order on equal treatment, regardless of race, in the military.

"The military remains the great equalizer," said Democratic Senator John Kerry. "Just like we did after President Truman desegregated the military, we'll someday look back and wonder what took Washington so long to fix it."

Senator John McCain, Obama's Republicanrival in 2008 and a Vietnam War veteran, led the opposition.

Speaking on the Senate floor minutes before a crucial test vote, the Arizona Republican acknowledged he couldn't stop the bill. He blamed elite liberals with no military experience for pushing their social agenda on troops during wartime.

"They will do what is asked of them," McCain said of service members. "But don't think there won't be a great cost."

How the military will implement a change in policy, and how long that will take, remains unclear. Senior Pentagon officials have said the new policy could be rolled out incrementally, service by service or unit by unit.

In a statement issued immediately after the vote, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he will begin the certification process immediately. But any change in policy won't come until after careful consultation with military service chiefs and combat commanders, he said.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he welcomes the change.

"No longer will able men and women who want to serve and sacrifice for their country have to sacrifice their integrity to do so," he said. "We will be a better military as a result."

With Mullen's backing, Gates ordered a year-long study on the impact, including a survey of troops and their families. The survey of troops, released Nov. 30, found that two-thirds of service members didn't think changing the law would have much of an effect.

But of those who did predict negative consequences, most were incombatunits. That statistic became ammunition for opponents of repeal, including the service chiefs of the army and marine corps.

"I don't want to lose any marines to the distraction," Gen. James Amos, head of the marine corps, told reporters. "I don't want to have any marines that I'm visiting at Bethesda (Naval Medical Center) with no legs be the result of any type of distraction."