Via Human Rights Campaign

Dear Daniel,  Yesterday, the United States Senate failed to bring up for consideration the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," by a vote of 57-40. They failed to uphold our country's principles by allowing a bigoted law to stay on the books. They failed to protect us by allowing senseless discharges of skilled service members to continue in a time of war.  They failed our troops. Not only the thousands of lesbian, gay, and bisexual men and women serving in silence, in fear of discharge; they failed their fellow troops who rely upon them for their safety and effectiveness.  Our troops have never failed us, and we cannot fail them. We can still end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Yesterday, a bipartisan group of senators, led by Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced a stand-alone bill to repeal the law. Repeal of DADT still enjoys broad public support, as well as support from military leaders, but make no mistake, getting this stand-alone bill over the finish line will be a heavy lift. Senate and House leadership along with the White House need to prioritize this new bill and get it passed by both chambers before the end of the year. Last night, I appeared on CNN with John King to discuss what had happened, and how we move forward. Yesterday we also made clear that ultimately the responsibility to end the discharges rests on President Obama, the commander-in-chief of our armed forces. If the Congress doesn't act, he has several tools we’ve encouraged him to use – including stopping the legal defense of the statute and ending the discharges through a stop-loss order. With this new legislative option on the table, it's even more critical that the President help get a durable solution on his desk. As we move forward, we will continue to engage our elected officials in every way that we can. In addition to our national efforts, next week we will be targeting key swing senators and engaging our membership in their constituency on the actions that they can take to keep up the pressure. The fight for open service has had many twists and turns, but until "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is left in the dustbin of history we will never give up the fight. Joe Solmonese President, Human Rights Campaign