HELP REPEAL DADT NOW! A MESSAGE FROM SWISH!

Dear Friends and Allies of Swish,


Here we go! Senator Reid filed for cloture on the DADT stand-alone bill last night (and just to be clear - this is the passed House bill, not S.4023), and the first vote is scheduled for early

Saturday, after the vote on DREAM.



Just to be clear on how the process worked - Reid called up the bill, and did not need to file cloture to proceed with it because this is "privileged" legislation. The cloture petition was filed to enable the Senate to get OFF the bill - to vote on final passage. That petition needs to sit for 30 hours before a vote, so Saturday is our day. So, on Saturday afternoon, we'll have a cloture vote to enable us to get to a final vote (60 votes needed), and then the final vote could come as early as Saturday, or Sunday (simple majority needed).



So ... action alert time!! This is it - the last chance for all of us to weigh in with our senators before they take this vote.



The ask: Call both your senators and tell them to vote for the House bill to repeal DADT. Click to call the Senate or dial the Capitol Switchboard at 202.224.3121 and ask to be connected to your Senators.



The updated targets list:



--John Ensign (R-NV);
--George LeMieux (R-FL);
--Richard Lugar (R-IN);
--Judd Gregg (R-NH);
--George Voinovich (R-OH);
--Kit Bond (R-MO);
--Mark Kirk (R-IL);
--Kent Conrad (D-ND);
--Joe Manchin (D-WV).



Those key senators particularly need calls, but of course calls are needed to all 100 senators at this point.



Also, SLDN is arranging for servicemembers to sit in the Senate gallery in shifts until the bill is passed - if some of Swish members are interested in participating, please let us know ASAP!

Here's hoping our next communication will be full of joy and bliss!

With Love and Pride,

The Swish Gang:
Sue (NY), Jamie (NY), Jason (NY), HL (NY), Adrienne (Northern CA), Josh (DC)

And our partners at Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN, Follow us on Twitter)