[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18478]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1010
                      REPEAL DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL

  (Mr. HIMES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, in 1857, just down the hall, the Supreme 
Court, which met in this building at the time, decided Dred Scott, in 
which they said that a black American was not entitled to the rights of 
the Constitution promised to all men. The good news is that over the 
years this institution has done the right thing--civil rights 
legislation, any number of things--to expiate that sin, but 17 years 
ago this body passed legislation which discriminated against our 
soldiers that said if you are gay, you can't serve your country; that 
regardless of how much we spent to train you, regardless of how 
critical your expertise is to keeping this country safe, you cannot 
serve your country.
  A report came out yesterday which indicates that there is, at most, a 
negligible threat, a negligible problem if we get rid of Don't Ask, 
Don't Tell. Now is the time to fix that sin of 17 years ago and say to 
gay Americans that if you're patriotic enough to serve this country, we 
welcome you in the armed services.
  I urge the Senate to act to repeal this act and to really get us 
closer to our founding creed.

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