美国国会近日通过议案，首次允许同性恋军人在军中公开性取向，兑现了总统奥巴马在竞选时许下的承诺。

The United States stood Sunday on the cusp（尖端，尖头） of letting gays serve openly in its military for the first time, as the US Congress sent President Barack Obama a bill to bring about the historic shift.

Senators voted 65-31 Saturday to approve House-passed legislation to repeal¹ the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" compromise（妥协，和解） of 1993 requiring gay soldiers to keep quiet about their sexual orientation² or face dismissal.

"It is time to recognize that sacrifice, valor³（英勇） and integrity are no more defined by sexual orientation than they are by race or gender⁴, religion or creed," said Obama, who vowed⁵ during his 2008 White House bid to lift the ban.

Obama was expected to sign the measure later in the week, launching a White House and Pentagon certification（证明，保证） process to ensure the smoothest possible transition at a time when Washington is fighting two wars.

The Pentagon has said it could take up to a year to implement⁶（实施，落实） the new policy.

Eight of the White House’s Republican foes⁸ backed the change — perhaps the biggest such shift in the US military since racial integration⁹ began in 1948 — while three Republicans and one Democrat¹⁰ missed the vote.

The measure, its passage assured when it cleared a procedural hurdle¹¹ by a 63-33 margin¹² earlier, fueled bitterly divisive debate in the already polarized Senate.

"The first casualty in the war in Iraq was a gay soldier. The mine that took off his right leg didn’t give a darn whether he was gay or straight. We shouldn’t either," Democratic Senator Carl Levin said before the ballot¹³.

"We cannot let these patriots¹⁴ down. Their suffering should end. It will end with the passage of this bill. I urge its passage today," said Levin, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"It isn’t broke, don’t fix it," countered Senator John McCain, the top Republican on Levin’s panel and Obama’s defeated 2008 White House rival and a fierce foe⁷ of lifting the ban.

"To somehow allege¹⁵ that it has harmed our military is not justified¹⁶ by the facts," McCain said. "Don’t think that it won’t be at great cost."

Passage triggered a time-consuming process that calls for lifting the ban only after the president, the secretary of defense¹⁷, and the top US uniformed officer certify¹⁸（证明，保证） that doing so can be done without harming military readiness（敏捷，迅速） , effectiveness, unit cohesion¹⁹（凝聚，结合） , recruiting and retention²⁰.

Republicans have scoffed²¹ that the leaders involved have already stated their support to ending the policy.

"They have already made up their minds," said Republican Senator James Inhofe.

The Pentagon issued a study this month that found a solid majority of troops were not bothered by the prospect²² of lifting the ban and that the military could implement the change without a major disruption or upheaval²³（巨变，隆起） .

The repeal effort enjoyed broad support from the US public, as well as from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and US Joint²⁴ Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen.

Gates — who had warned that US courts would step in and perhaps force a hasty（轻率的，匆忙的） end to the policy unless lawmakers acted — said the Pentagon would "carry out this change carefully and methodically, but purposefully."

Mullen, whose emotional February testimony²⁵ to Congress in favor of repeal has been credited as a signal moment, said ending the ban was "the right thing to do."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose husband Bill had enacted²⁶ the "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell" policy when he was president, said the appeal would strengthen US support for human rights internationally.

In the years since the ban was enacted as a compromise, some 13,000 US troops have been ousted²⁷（驱逐，剥夺） , and critics have pointed²⁸ out that many were trained at great expense, like fighter pilots, or had hard-to-find skills, such as Arabic translators.

But opponents of the legislation have cited testimony from US military service chiefs who warned against a quick repeal, citing concerns about unit cohesion.

General James Amos, commandant of the Marine²⁹ Corps³⁰ and an opponent of lifting the ban, has warned repeal could jeopardize³¹（危害） the lives of Marines in combat by undermining closely knit units.

Newly minted Democratic Senator Joe Manchin and Republican Senators Jim Bunning, Judd Gregg, and Orrin Hatch did not vote on repeal.