[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 158 (Wednesday, October 28, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H11986]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               IT'S TIME TO END ``DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL''

  (Ms. SPEIER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commend our former colleague and 
current Secretary of the Army, John McHugh. He rightly stated last 
weekend that the United States Army--the proudest and most professional 
fighting force on Earth--is fully capable of accepting openly gay and 
lesbian Americans into service and ending the unworkable and 
unconscionable policy of ``don't ask, don't tell.''
  We have all heard the tired arguments of why all Americans who choose 
to serve should not be allowed to serve, but those arguments belong to 
an intolerant past. The men and women who make up today's Armed Forces 
are modern, highly informed Americans who have grown up in an era more 
accepting of individual differences. As Secretary McHugh said, ``The 
Army has a big history of taking on similar issues with predictions of 
doom and gloom that did not play out.''
  At long last, the United States military is ready to be 
representative of all the people of the United States. It's time now 
for Congress to act and send legislation to the President asking him to 
end ``don't ask, don't tell'' once and for all.

                          ____________________