Texas Representative Louie Gohmert says
acceptance of openly gay military service will be America's downfall.
Gohmert made his comments Wednesday on
the House floor as members debated whether to repeal “Don't Ask,
Don't Tell,” the 1993 law that bans gay and bisexual troops from
serving openly.
The 57-year-old Republican argued that
repeal would “hurt” the military.
“To my friend who said that history
would judge us poorly, I would submit if you would look thoroughly at
history – and I'm not saying it's cause and effect – but when
militaries throughout history of the greatest nations in the world
have adopted the policy that 'fine for homosexuality to be over' –
you can keep it private and control your hormones fine, if you can't,
that's fine too – they're toward the end of their existence as a
great nation.”
“Lets look at this more carefully
before we harm our military,” he added. (The video is embedded in
the right panel of this page.)
A
majority of House members disagreed with Gohmert and approved the
bill with a 250 to 175 vote, including 15 Republicans. The
standalone bill now heads back to the Senate, which has twice failed
to approve repeal language bundled within the annual defense bill.
The
new version, however, has greater GOP support.