Today at a White House press conference, President Barack Obama reiterated his call for repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that has harmed our national security and discriminates against men and women who want to serve their country.  The President specifically signaled his desire for the Senate to act on repeal in the upcoming lame duck session.  Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese issued the following statement:

“The President’s call for repeal today is a first step of many needed to fulfill his state of the union promise to end the law that harms our national security.  We urge the Senate to heed the President’s call for action in the post-election session and look forward to his continued leadership in seeing this through.  As he articulated, the legal challenges and political posturing have created confusion and now is the time to wipe this stain of discrimination from the books.  It would be a travesty for a small group of Senators to continue to hold hostage a bill with critical military equipment and pay raises just because they don’t want to debate repeal.”