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WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday voted to overturn the 17-year-old "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy that forced gays in the military to lie about their sexual identity or else be threatened with discharge.
By a 234 to 194 margin, the House passed an amendment that would end the ban, so long as a Pentagon study due for release by Dec. 1 determines that the change will not affect the military's ability to fight or recruit troops.
The Senate Armed Services Committee passed a similar measure earlier in the day, but it remains unclear whether the bill has the 60 votes needed in the Senate to break an expected Republican filibuster.
Still, the House vote was a huge victory for millions of gay Americans and for the lawmakers who fought the policy since its inception under President Bill Clinton in 1993.
"I don't discriminate against people, and I can't believe that for all these years we forced people who served their country and put their lives on the line to hide who they were," said Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-Fairport.
Slaughter and Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, voted to repeal the policy. Rep. Chris Lee, R- Clarence, voted against repeal.
"We're heard from generals on both sides of this, and they all say they want to wait till this study is done" before deciding on the change, Lee said.
The decision to pass the bill now, before the study is done, is a compromise between President Obama and gay rights activists who have accused him of neglecting their issues.
It's also a reflection of concern that Democrats could lose control of the House in the November election, thereby dooming prospects for repeal.
Gay rights advocates were thrilled with the House action.
The vote for repeal looked solid by early in the day, prompting Jarrod Chlapowski, military consultant to the Human Rights Campaign, to call a friend on active duty.
"As I tried to tell him how good a position we are in, the phone became silent," he said. "I asked if he was OK, only to realize he simply couldn't get the words out to respond. He was crying. We both were."
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, while backing repeal, offered a tepid endorsement of doing so before the study is done. But Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, endorsed the House's approach after saying in February that repeal is "the right thing to do."
Others aren't so sure.
"I remain convinced that it is critically important to get a better understanding of where our Soldiers and Families are on this issue, and what the impacts on readiness and unit cohesion might be, so that I can provide informed military advice to the President and the Congress," Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army's chief of staff, wrote.
That very same debate echoed on both sides of Capitol Hill.
In the House, Higgins noted that 12,000 people were dismissed from the military under the policy from 1995 through 2008, and that the military had lost some of its best Arab and Farsi speakers as a result.
"Our military, who risk their lives in the line of duty, deserve to have the best people by their side and should not be deprived of the talents of any American who courageously chooses to serve," Higgins said.
But Republicans countered by arguing that Democrats were forcing the policy on the military whether the generals and the troops wanted it or not.
"We're saying, 'We're shoving this down your throat, we don't care,'" said Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.
Similar arguments could be heard on the Senate side, as the Armed Services Committee backed repeal in a 16-12 vote.
"I think it's really going to be very harmful to the morale and effectiveness of our military," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
But Democrats echoed the thoughts of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who is not on the committee but who has been among the Senate's loudest voices for repeal of the policy.
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is wrong for our national security and is inconsistent with the moral foundation upon which our country was founded," Gillibrand said. "Each time we discharge a member of our Armed Services just because of who they are, we weaken our military and our national security."
The policy stemmed from a controversy over the Clinton administration's proposal to open the military to gays. Conservatives and the military pushed back strongly against the idea, leaving Clinton accepting a compromise that allowed gays to serve — but only if they hid their sexual identify and refrained from acting on it.
Societal acceptance of homosexuality has grown substantially in the past generation, however. A Gallup poll earlier this month found that 70 percent of Americans support allowing openly gay men and lesbians to serve in the military, while 25 percent opposed it.
News wire services contributed to this account.
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