Ptorchwood Ptales & Ptimely Pthoughts

It's the Christmas Miracle of 2010. Eight Republican Senators broke with their party to vote in favor of repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

All 55 Democrats, two Independents and six Republican senators  voted for cloture, giving the measure enough votes to override a Republican filibuster. An additional two Republicans joined in voting yes on the final repeal vote.

The bill, which already passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday by a vote of 250-175, has undergone a token final passage vote in the Senate. From there it will head to President Barack Obama's desk for his signature to become law.

And I have to say, a big thank you to Joe Lieberman (I-Conn) who prior to the vote said “The existing 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' policy is in my opinion inconsistent with American values.”

Of course, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, who opposed a repeal of the policy, praised the US military but said of them “They will do what is asked of them, but don’t think it won’t be at great cost.”  Fuck you very much, Senator!

Key to this victory (that I honestly thought had NO chance of passing) were eight Republican Senators who bravely went against their party to vote in favor of the repeal:

Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
Olympia Snowe of Maine
Susan Collins of Maine
George Voinovich of Ohio
Mark Kirk of Illinois
Scott Brown of Massachusetts

and two Republicans who didn't vote for cloture, did vote yes on the actual repeal:

Richard Burr, N. Carolina (though he did so in a vey begrudging way, saying he thought it was the wrong time to do so)
John Ensign, Nevada


Thank you for having the bravery to do the right thing, the decent thing. I didn't vote for Mark Kirk in the most recent Illinois election but I've already sent him an email thanking him for his vote, and letting him know that as a Democrat I am so proud of him having the courage to buck his party right out of the starting gate.

Thank you for not giving in to Republican threats to 'punish' you for this vote, to stall negotiations on the START Treaty and other assorted nut-fuckery.

And you know, i hear all the time about "you don't get cookies for doing the right thing." And normally I agree with this. But today, fuck that, I'd send the whole MF bakery to these senators if I could. And YOU SHOULD TO!

If you are mature enough to understand that there may be great cost to these Senators and positive reinforcement actually works, take a moment and send them an email of thanks. Obviously, if you are from their state it has more impact, but even if you're not, or you don't live in the US, take a moment to thank them. Because don't kid yourself, come January, payback against them will begin. Mitch McConnell is a nasty piece of work so I fully expect that these Senators will be publicly flogged by him.

And thank yous to Democrat Senators are also in order. Many of them are representing districts that are quite conservative so this isn't without political risk to them.

(And please, if you really have a thing about no cookies for Senators, wonderful, keep it to yourself. This is not a day of ideological purity (let's leave that for the Repugantcans). This is a day of celebration and I really don't want to have to screen comments).

I'm off to do a happy dance.

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iola1234 reminds me that there are service men and women who have sacrificed their careers standing up against DADT.  To them I give my profound thanks for their service and their bravery at home as well as abroad.
 
And a special thank you to Lt. Dan Choi who was recently hospitalized after a nervous breakdown and an anxiety attack. More than anyone else, Lt. Choi has put a human face on the cost of DADT to individuals and the military. 

I've updated this to reflect the news (thank you sbsS01) that a final vote was taken tonight and a total of 8 Republicans joined the Democrats and Independents in voting 'yes ' to repealing DADT.

How Women's and LGBT Rights Are Intertwined

by Alex DiBranco

In South Africa, it has been an epidemic, with hundreds of queer women reporting corrective rape every year -- and many more silent in the shadows. The rapes are fed by a deadly cocktail of misogyny and homophobia; as this phenomenon makes all too clear, women's and LGBT rights are intertwined.

Yesterday, Abbie Kopf blogged on the Gay Rights blog, "Why Every Gay Rights Advocate Should Be a Feminist." And the sentiment goes both ways.
. . . . . . .
Read the rest of the article here:  http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/how_womens_and_lgbt_rights_are_intertwined

The article by Abbie Kopf is also worth reading.
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Your are free to comment as long as you are respectful.  Unfortunately due to recent events, I will be screening comments.

Yes, I agree with the position.  I've been active in human rights advocacy, including gay rights advocacy for 35+ years. I've been writing fanfic for six months. So before you start making assumptions that I'm a slash writer who 'thinks' they support gay rights, you might want to realize that I was involved in this issue before a lot of you were born. Long before it was fashionable to have gay friends, or participate in gay rights events. Long before AIDS, during AIDS and God-willing after AIDS. I have friends and family members who are gay and I'm not going to apologize to anyone for that.  If you have a problem with that, really that's your problem, not mine.

And if you don't agree that straight women should work for gay rights, that's fine. You are free to explain why. But you are not free to make personal attacks or judgments about the motivations of others unless you know them personally, send hate messages to my PM, or any other nutfuckery that you think up.  Instead take all that negative energy and make something positive out of it.
 
Go do something meaningful.  Write a letter on behalf of a political prisoner in another country. Attend a rally supporting rights for immigrants.  Open your checkbook and help kids who are homeless, feed a hungry child even if they aren't the same race or religion that you are.  There a dozens of things you can do to make the world a better place, that don't take a whole lot of time or even much money. Its fine to stand up for yourself, but if you only stand for yourself and don't stand up for others, then you're part of the problem, not part of the solution.
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This message was not approved by my feminist friends, my gay friends, political prisoners, immigrants, hungry children, or anyone else.