Reiding the Tea Leaves

While Netroots Nation roars ahead in Las Vegas, numerous reports are coming out of the convention from individual activists and bloggers about direct access opportunities to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Each time I see a video or a transcript or an account of one of these exchanges with Senator Reid, I can’t help but [...]

A Kick in the Gut

So last week a very good old friend confided in me that he was now HIV positive. I would by lying to you if I pretended like hearing that news wasn’t a complete kick in the gut, although I certainly tried to put on a strong and optimistic face for him when he told me. [...]

With Repeal in Sight, What Next?

One of the questions I get asked most often is, “If the ban is lifted, would you go back in?” And my answer is always an unequivocal, “Yep!” But someone made a interesting point to me the other day about that very question. Noting that since I was discharged under DADT in 2002, I’ve gone [...]

Focus on the Family… PLEASE!

After spending the holidays in South Carolina with my family and friends, I decided to stop by Ft. Bragg, NC on the way back up I-95 to DC in order to see an old friend of mine from my freshman year of college (I’ll call her Kristin here). Although Facebook has made it a little [...]

Mullen Ready for the Change

In a recent Department of Defense podcast specifically on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT), Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen appeared ready and willing to lead the Defense Department through a repeal of the DADT law. I’ve always been of the school of thought within the DADT Repeal Movement that pre-agreed upon buy-in from the [...]

Civilian Translators Unfit for Duty?

This recent article from the Associated Press is worth a read. Not only does it highlight the military’s extreme need for critical language specialists, but it nails the point on why we can’t just rely on civilian translators to do the job. I’ll let the article speak for itself…
Associated Press: A Word for Many DoD [...]

A Note on Invalid Polls

Proponents of keeping “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” often point to wildly invalid and unscientific subscriber and reader opinion surveys from print and online content providers like the Military Times and Military.com as “proof” that service members don’t want “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repealed. What these individuals will conveniently leave out, however, is that these “polls” [...]

Thank You for the ‘Thank Yous’

For some reason, the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ issue has become extremely personal for me. No, not just because I served under it, nor just because I was discharged early from the military because of it. Several hundred thousand gays and lesbians have served under DADT and over 13,000 have been discharged under it. Few, [...]

Debrief on NPR/Fresh Air Interview

This afternoon I recorded an hour long interview with NPR’s Terry Gross for tomorrow’s ‘Fresh Air’ episode on DADT and the national premier of ‘Ask Not.’ Over the past four years I’ve done hundreds of pieces of media on DADT, through which I thought I had exhaustively explored every nook and cranny of my experience [...]

Life on the J List

After more than a year of film festivals and community screenings, ‘ASK NOT’ (the landmark new documentary from PBS on DADT, gay troops and veterans, and the DADT Repeal Movement) is making its national broadcast debut next week on PBS. It’s a little sad, in a way, because having ‘ASK NOT’ on the film festival [...]

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