Grammy Award-nominee Melissa Etheridge
says she's optimistic about repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell,”
the 1993 law that forbids gay troops from serving openly.
The 49-year-old openly lesbian
singer-songwriter told celebrity
website Pop Eater that senators who voted earlier in the month
against repeal of the 17-year-old law did so out of fear.
“I know that those votes only come
from fear,” Etheridge said. “That they push those votes through
in an election year, it just shows who's running the show up there.”
The mother of four added that she
believes the country is moving forward on gay rights.
“I know that we as a country and we
as a world are moving forward into understanding that you can't
legislate people's choices and what one person considers good and
what one person considers bad.”
“I know in the next 10, 20 years this
will all be behind us and we will all sort of laugh at those crazy
days when 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' was a law,” the Come To My
Window singer said.