That dripping sound you hear is the social and legal progress made for women and minorities in the last 50 years slowly bleeding away. In a move sure to surprise none yet anger many, the Republican-controlled House Armed Services Committee voted an astonishing 61-1 to bar women from serving in direct combat roles within the military. The same committee within the Senate voted for a similar bill early last week.

“Many Americans feel that women in combat or combat support positions [are] not a bridge we want to cross at this point,” said Rep. John McHugh, R-New York, who sponsored the amendment.

This statement flies headlong into 20 years of historical evidence that would suggest otherwise. In 1963 the 2-percent cap on female military members allowed to serve was repealed, officially throwing the doors open. In 1972 the chief of naval operations, Admiral Zumwalt, published Z-116, an official commitment to equal rights and opportunities for women in the Navy. That same year, the Navy promoted the first female admiral, who later went on to become the director of the Navy Nurse Corps. Two years later, the Air Force followed suit, placing the first female air crew member on operational flying status, a position that regularly places personnel in dangerous areas of operation, up to and including combat.

In 1983 President Reagan ordered the armed forces to invade Grenada in response to the political and military takeover of the island by leftist forces, calling the new regime a “brutal group of thugs.” Over 200 women served in theater during this operation, though they were not officially considered to have participated in combat.

A more recent – and ultimately controversial – point in history came in 1989 during the invasion of Panama, otherwise known as Operation Just Cause. Seven-hundred-and-seventy women were deployed to the combat zone, two of whom were in command of Army companies. Two female pilots received the Air Medal with V (valor) Device for participation in combat missions. When history looks back at this police action, though, it is the story of Captain Linda Bray that is often overlooked.

At 0100 hours, Operation Just Cause began. Captain Bray, of the 519th Military Police Battalion, led a platoon of soldiers in an attack against the Panamanian Defense Forces near Panama City. After an initial offer for their surrender, the captain and her men came under direct enemy fire. In response, Bray drove a military jeep through the base security gates, opening the line enough for her men to overpower the remaining defenders.

She then went on to help secure other high-profile positions in and around the city, including portions of Curundu and Balboa Harbor. Initially the Pentagon played up her role, but later she found herself politically abandoned when conservative forces raised an uproar.

The harassment and disinformation campaign that followed was eerily reminiscent of the Jessica Lynch PR disaster, with Pentagon and civilian sources offering conflicting, and often damning, reports about her conduct. Eventually, the public pressure became so intense as to destroy Captain Bray’s career, and in 1991 she resigned her commission.

What of John McHugh, who helped create the bill? According to the Web page of the Fleet Reserve Association, an organization that studies the military status of our elected officials, Rep. John McHugh never served in uniform and actively avoided the draft during the Vietnam War. Despite public comments stating that this bill aimed to protect the fairer sex, his voting record suggests that he has never been a friend to the oppressed. In the past 10 years, he has voted to ban same-sex marriage and voted against same-sex adoptions. The women’s organization NARAL gave McHugh a less then stellar score of 0 percent when it comes to women’s issues and civil rights.

What connection is there between GLBT issues and this bill? In the end it comes down to his dismissal of the minority; a vote against one is a vote against all. And while he seemed eager enough to vote to support a questionable war, the current bill would deny our armed forces nearly a third of the support and combat personnel needed to continue it. Both his Watertown and Washington offices refused to comment at the time of this article’s publication.

It’s an unfortunate comment on the state of current political affairs when the majority now in power has so few veterans, yet at the same time wishes to legislate and restrict access to qualified personnel.

The issue of women in the military has always been a contentious one, from the moment Elizabeth Newcom disguised herself as a man to fight in the Mexican-American war to the now integrated combat personnel of the modern American armed forces. Theirs has been a position earned only through the battlefields of the judiciary.