The Assembly approved a resolution today urging President Barack Obama and Congress to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward gays and lesbians in the Armed Forces.
Senate Joint Resolution 9 was approved 51-17, with only two Republicans supporting it -- Assemblymen Anthony Adams of Hesperia and Nathan Fletcher of San Diego. Eleven legislators were absent or abstained.
The resolution, which the Senate approved last August, will return to the upper house for concurrence in minor amendments. SJR 9 was introduced by Sen. Christine Kehoe, an openly gay Democrat from San Diego.
The military does not permit its personnel to have sexual bodily or romantic contact with members of the same sex.
"Don't ask, don't tell," initiated in 1994 to replace an outright ban on gays and lesbians in the military, generally prohibits homosexuals or bisexuals from disclosing their sexual orientation and bars commanders from investigating it.
Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, an openly gay San Francisco legislator, reminded colleagues that Obama had promised to rescind the policy.
"It's time to hold the president to his promise," Ammiano said.
Adams said he cannot condone the Armed Forces treating one group of Americans differently from others: "Treating people unequally cannot be ignored."
Only Assemblyman Paul Cook, a Yucca Valley Republican who earned medals of valor for military service in Vietnam, spoke against SJR 9 during more than 30 minutes of Assembly floor debate.
Cook said he sympathized with proponents of SJR 9 but could not support interfering with the military, which has a longstanding reputation for ably defending the country.
Democratic Assemblywoman Alyson Huber of El Dorado Hills countered that lawmakers have a right to intercede. "Sometimes we have to say to our military that this is the code of conduct we expect of you," she said.
After Thursday's vote, Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, an Irvine Republican who served as a lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard, said he was concerned about "practical implementation" of allowing homosexuals to serve openly.
"I would never trust my 18-year-old daughter to sleep with a man who was 18," DeVore said. "The challenge with gays serving openly is, what do you do with the field sleeping arrangements?"
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