Updated at 5:25 p.m. ET

The House has easily passed a bill to repeal the policy known as "don't ask, don't tell." The vote was aimed at sending a message to the Senate, where efforts to repeal have been blocked by Republicans.

The final House vote was 250-175, primarily along party lines. There were 15 Republicans who joined 235 Democrats to support the measure.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., paraphrased conservative icon Barry Goldwater as he urged a "yes" vote on repeal.

Americans should "worry that people can shoot straight, not whether they are straight," Hoyer said, adding that the test for people serving in the military should be whether they are patriotic and committed to the United States.

Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., the incoming chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he sides with the top officers of the military branches who say overturning the policy would be disruptive.

"The right thing for me is to protect those in uniform," he said.

More than three-fourths of Americans, or 77%, support allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll. That's the broadest support in 17 years.

The vote came on a stand-alone bill on repeal offered by Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., the first Iraq war veteran elected to Congress. The move is aimed at getting the Senate to also take up a stand-alone bill before Congress leaves for the holidays.

But it's unclear what will happen in the Senate. The repeal is currently tied up in a measure authorizing Pentagon programs. A stand-alone measure by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, to overturn the ban has 47 co-sponsors.

The Senate is now considering a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a leading opponent of repealing "don't ask, don't tell," said the Senate will also take up a Pentagon bill that does not include the controversial measure on gay people in the military.

Congress would like to adjourn this weekend, but the Senate still needs to pass a stop-gap measure to continue funding the government.

Although Defense Secretary Robert Gates supports repeal of the policy, Marine Corps Commandant James Amos has been adamant that overturning it could have a negative impact on the armed forces.

"I don't want to lose any marines to the distraction," Amos told reporters on Tuesday.

Joe Solomonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, said the House action shows momentum for repeal. "The U.S. House of Representatives said, for the second time...the only thing that matters on the battlefield is the ability to do the job," he said, urging the Senate "to consign this failed and discriminatory low to the dustbin of history."

The ABC News/Washington Post poll of 1,001 adults was taken Dec. 9-12. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points.

(Posted by Catalina Camia)