Washington:
The US Congress gave its final approval to President Barack Obama's historic drive to let gays serve openly in the US military for the first time, a landmark victory for gay rights.
After a bitter debate, senators yesterday voted 65-31 to pass legislation to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" compromise of 1993 that requires gay soldiers to keep quiet about their sexual orientation or face dismissal.
The measure, which had cleared a key procedural hurdle 63-33 hours earlier, now heads to Obama to sign into law -- triggering a White House and Pentagon certification process to ensure the smoothest possible transition.
"It is time to recognise that sacrifice, valour and integrity are no more defined by sexual orientation than they are by race or gender, religion or creed," Obama said in a statement before the final senate vote.
The final vote saw eight Republicans join all but one of Obama's Democratic allies after a bitter debate that deeply divided the already polarised 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 ballot.
"We cannot let these patriots 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 foe of lifting the ban.
"To somehow allege that it has harmed our military is not justified by the facts," McCain said. "Don't think that it won't be at great cost."
Obama had promised during his 2008 White House campaign to lift the ban, ushering in perhaps the biggest sea change in the US military since racial integration began in 1948.