Senate votes to repeal DADT!
The US Senate has just voted, 65 to 31, to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
As noted in my previous entry, it's not over yet; it'll be months before the repeal is final.
But this is a huge and wonderful step.
I'm especially pleased to see that two more Republican senators joined the vote to repeal: Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Sen. John Ensign (R-NV).
No credit, though, to Democratic senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), who—after weeks of saying he wasn't sure, and that he thought it would probably get repealed soon but he hadn't had a chance to decide how to vote yet—skipped today's vote in favor of a family holiday party. Manchin was the only Democratic senator who did not vote yes on the cloture vote earlier and on the final vote just now.
I hadn't realized that the Senate website provided a full list of who voted how on each vote; seems obvious in retrospect, but I hadn't seen it before. Apparently results are published about an hour after the vote, so the DADT repeal roll call isn't up yet, but presumably will be soon.
(Weirdly, the page for the cloture vote claims to be about the SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2009, “A bill to amend the Small Business Act.” But it's not really about that act; it's about the cloture vote on the DADT repeal. I've dropped a note to the Senate webmaster asking them to fix this. Added later: turns out that the House bill was somehow attached/related/connected to a small-business act from 2009. I don't understand the ways of our government. Apologies for my confusion, and thanks to Jeff H for explaining.)