Throw Aside Your Laurels Folks: We’re Not Done

So I’m about to head out all over the country for some pretty strategic field work , momentum for repeal abounding, and yet I’m nowhere near ready to rest on my – or anybody else’s – laurels.  We’re closer to repealing DADT than we’ve been in many years, closer than we will be for years [...]

Announcing the Voices of Honor Campaign

Sixteen years. President Obama is roughly at the same point in his Presidency as President Clinton was when he signed into law what has become the status quo policy on gays and lesbians in the military. An entire generation has grown up with this law, and service members within 5 years of retirement never saw [...]

Dr. Stanley and an All-Volunteer Force

Ten minutes of the confirmation hearing for Dr. Clifford L. Stanley, and already DADT is presented as contentious. After Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D, MI) provided a basic background of the three nominees – Dr. Stanley having 33 years of military and command experience and family members in every service – ranking [...]

Veterans Day – A Proud Cadre

“Why would you ever join an institution that openly discriminates against you?”  This is a question I am often asked when on the road, to which my response usually begins, “Well, I was unaware I had the honor of being included in that discriminated class at the time…”  I had no clue I was gay [...]

Defining the Opposition

I think a large mistake we often make in the fight for repeal is looping the Opposition – capital ‘O’ – into one large, cohesive entity that converses and plans against our efforts for open service, as many have very nuanced reasons for opposing repeal that can’t be characterized into a simple sound bite. Sure, [...]

Cartoons in Kansas City

For this week’s leg of the Tour, we decided to hit St. Louis, Kansas City, Lincoln, and Omaha in consecutive order given each location’s relative proximity to its surrounding events; i.e. Kansas City is about equidistant between St. Louis and Lincoln, with about 3.5 hours driving time between each location, allowing us to make the [...]

Can I Gush for A Second?

If you ever come to an SU event, see SU in the media, or just stop by the office, you’ll immediately become impressed with the sheer intelligence, determination, and frankly, brilliance of our Executive Director. I’ve been a rabid admirer of Alex since I first met him in Seattle almost 4 years ago, and though [...]

Remembering Due Diligence

HR 1059. This was the original Military Readiness Enhancement Act, introduced by Marty Meehan of Massachusetts in 2005. When learning media sound bites in that rush between getting out of the Army in November of 2005 and launching the Call To Duty tour the following February, supporting HR 1059 was a pretty good stock answer [...]

Sand and Seals

Sand flies through the air, for a second providing a brown tinge to the haze already obstructing the sun.   A few grains land on my face, in my eyes, on my tongue.  I don’t mind, as I know I will be looking at moments like this nostalgically in just a few days.  In moments the [...]

Two New Developments

First, Ellen Tauscher can no longer head the Congressional repeal effort, mainly because the new Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security will very soon no longer be in Congress. MREA will be lacking leadership, at least for a few seconds. Congressional momentum is effectively stalled. Second, SecDef Gates has confirmed the Obama [...]

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