Norton on House Floor Votes to Repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
Washington, DC- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) took her experience as a former chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and as a longtime civil rights activist to a "21st century civil rights issue," when she voted last night to repeal the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Norton is a co-sponsor of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2009, a version of which was attached to the Defense Authorization bill that passed the House today. She has won the vote on amendments on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole.
The Congresswoman argued against further congressional delay in eliminating "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," saying, "the policy has produced a boatload of new problems beyond the denial of the right to defend one's country." She said that the Pentagon Working Group study on implementing the repeal provides all the necessary safeguards to ensure that the process of full and equal integration of gays into the military ranks meets the needs and special circumstances of our armed forces. "Fortunately," Norton said, "the military already has abundant experience in fully incorporating Americans once shunned by the military." She said that the military "did its job and did it well when President Truman ordered the racial integration of the armed forces before the rest of the country had taken on its share of this responsibility. Before the courts acted in Brown v. Board of Education, and before Congress acted with passage of the civil rights laws, the military became our first official institution in our history to eliminate separate but equal for people of color and for women." Norton said that it is easier for a command structure to carry out such obligations, and that she has no doubt that "the military has the experience and the will to do for gays what they have done for women and minorities."
"The vote on the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell' civil rights amendment that I was proud to cast, elevates the urgency of achieving full voting rights on every issue for the citizens of the District of Columbia," Norton continued.
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