In San Diego

The terrible shark attack that killed one man Friday, closed the beaches, and sent San Diego into a state of justifiable shock filled the local news and didn’t leave much room for us, but we got our message across as best we could.

SLDN board member Mike Magee had set up a meeting with Republican Congressman Brian Bilbray and we met with him yesterday afternoon in his district office. Another board member, Tom Carpenter from Los Angeles, and Military Advisory Council member Keith Kerr joined us for the meeting.

We were there to ask the Congressman to join with 142 of his House colleagues to become a co-sponsor of HR 1246.

It didn’t seem as if we succeeded. The time is not right, he said. He wasn’t sure if the time would be right next year, or the year after that. There were a lot of other things pending before Congress. The political system moves slowly. That’s how it’s designed. He thought we ought to continue working quietly for the bill--but as anyone who’s been involved in the struggle for civil rights knows, if you work too quietly nobody hears you. Noise isn’t always polite but sometimes it is necessary. We're out here trying to make noise politely.

Rep. Bilbray did say that he listens more to the rank and file than he does to the generals. That's good news for us, because the evidence indicates that it doesn’t matter much to the rank and file whether their buddies are gay or straight. It shouldn’t matter to anyone else, either, but it does.

With Mike Magee’s help, we’ll keep working on the Congressman, reminding him that poll after poll shows the American people favor lifting the ban. In the Congressman’s own district of San Diego there are more than 21,000 lesbian and gay veterans. (The estimate comes from Gary Gates at UCLA’s Williams Institute.) If even ten percent of those 21,000 voices speak out, you can be sure that Rep. Bilbray will hear them and soon Congress will not be able to ignore them. Change begins with the people, but it doesn’t happen until Congress makes it the law.

-David Hall and Aubrey Sarvis

On the Road to San Diego

The dogwoods and azaleas were in full, glorious flower in Washington yesterday afternoon -- one of those exhilarating spring days which too quickly fade into the heat of summer here -- and David Hall and I were heading to Dulles Airport for our flight to San Diego, the first stop on a nine-day tour of six Western cities.

Yes, we’re taking SLDN on the road again, telling the story that’s familiar to most of you but that most Americans aren’t really aware of. In radio, television and newspaper interviews, and in community forums we’re spreading the word about how the sad chapter in American history entitled “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” came to be written.

It all started just over 15 years ago, when President Clinton said it was only fair that gays and lesbians should be able to serve openly in the military along with everybody else. He would issue an executive order to make that happen.

As we all know, it didn’t happen. The president’s announcement caused quite a stir, especially on Capitol Hill. Secret meetings were held in the corridors of power. Action would have to be taken. Congressional hearings were hastily arranged. Key players in the Pentagon testified openly and said “no way.” Key Congressmen and Senators were saying the same thing.

Right away it was clear where the votes were, and they weren’t with us. All that was left for Congress to do was to dress this ugly “no way” in something more presentable. How did they make this discriminatory and un-American policy look like something other than what it was? Here’s how. We’ll let gays and lesbians serve in the military. That’s fine, that’s fair. In America we respect the civil rights of everybody. We don’t discriminate. But there was one small proviso: if you’re gay or lesbian, you must keep quiet about it. No problem. Stay in the closet. Come out of the closet and you’re out of the service. We’ll make it the law of the land.

Eager to move on to other things, the president gave up the fight. He hurried to point out that the proposed new law was much better than the status quo.

Compromise was the word. A majority of Senators and House members liked the sound of that. Compromise is the American way. They congratulated themselves and moved on. Fortunately, some saw this law for the shameful thing it was. Unfortunately they did not prevail and the policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” became the law of the land.

It was unfair, totally against the nobler aspirations of this country. (You remember: “All men are created equal.”) It was wrong and foolish and unfair. It did not serve the best interests of the nation and of our military then; it does not serve their best interests now.

Between then and now thousands have been kicked out of the military, and thousands more said they’d had enough and left of their own accord. Careers were ruined and our national security was weakened.

The absurdity of this law became painfully obvious again this week when the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released Defense Department data showing that the armed services, in order to meet their recruiting goals are issuing an increasing number of “moral waivers” to felons convicted of serious offenses and others who would otherwise be ineligible.

What’s the message here? That most service members would rather share a foxhole with a violent convicted felon than with a gay man or woman? That seriously dangerous lawbreakers are more desirable than gays and lesbians?

That’s why we’re on the road: to spread the word among the American people and to raise money to get this offensive law repealed.

We’ll provide you with an update from San Diego later in the week.

-Aubrey Sarvis

On The Road in San Antonio

Remember the Alamo? It’s right across the street from my hotel. I came to San Antonio last Wednesday with my colleague David Hall to raise awareness of just how unfair "Don‘t Ask, Don’t Tell" really is, to meet with SLDN supporters, and with any luck to raise some money for the cause.

Our friends are already committed, and they give us great moral and financial support, San Antonio and Austin friends like Dr. Christopher Hammet, Paul Carter, Ron Anderson, Anne Wynne, George Beddingfield, General Virgil Richard and so many more. But our friends already understand the fundamental unfairness of this law. We have to open the eyes of all those millions of uncommitted voters who probably don’t give "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" much thought (the same way that sixty years ago most Americans didn’t give racial segregation much thought). Americans recognize unfairness when eventually they see it. Our job is to make them see it now, and that’s part of what I’m trying to do in San Antonio. When we’ve got enough voters on our side, the votes in Congress will go along. They always do. That’s how democracy works, and we have to make it work for us. That’s why we’re launching a national political campaign to show the American people and Congress that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is today’s way of separating Americans into first-class citizens and second-class citizens -- even though all of them together are fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan right now.

Last Thursday night we launched our national ’08 campaign at a forum in an old downtown church in San Antonio. It’s no longer a church; it’s now a bistro and theater but in many ways it still feels like a church, an inviting church. There were about fifty of us—a good crowd, I thought, considering that the big debate in Austin between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was being telecast on CNN that night. Dr. Paul Boskind, a member of our board and a wonderful San Antonio supporter, was our host and led the discussion. And we all listened to stories.

Former Marine Sergeant Brian Fricke didn’t like having to pretend he was someone else while serving in Iraq, but when he came home the indignity of his second-class treatment from the Marine Corps under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was more than he could take. He quit, and the Marines lost a good man.

The Air Force invested many thousands of dollars in training my colleague David Hall, a former Air Force sergeant who’d been honorably discharged after he was accepted in the Air Force ROTC cadet program. He was first in his class, had already gotten a coveted pilot’s slot and was just months away from being commissioned when a fellow cadet reported him under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," revealing that David was gay. As David told us, that was more important than anything he had accomplished in his career, any awards and honors he had received, and he was discharged. But I have a question: what kind of behavior does "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" reward, telling on a colleague or living an honest life?

And retired Army chaplain Paul Dodd shared painful stories and memories of service members being kicked out under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" over the past fifteen years.

Towards the end of our discussion we were joined by Army Sergeant Darren Manzella, a medic who worked 12-hour days and nights taking care of his wounded comrades in the streets of Baghdad. He returned recently from Kuwait and is now serving in nearby Ft. Hood. Darren violated "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" most recently, and most spectacularly, last December 16th when he told his story to Lesley Stahl and the 15 million viewers of the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes. So far he’s still in the Army.

This federal law has been in force for 15 years, and still the absurdity goes on. Now, in this time of a severely overstrained military, American forces cannot legally accept an openly gay service member, but accepting a convicted felon is no problem. Makes a lot of sense, right?

In a larger sense, all of us, gay and straight, are victims of an irrational law inconsistently applied. Darren, and David, and Brian, and Paul, however, are that law’s direct victims and their stories drive the point home. We’re here in San Antonio to repeal that law, to help right a wrong, and to put an end to this unfinished business. And that costs money. A grassroots national political campaign is very expensive.

San Antonio was generous, very generous. We will leave here with nearly $50,000 to wage this important fight and, just as importantly, we leave having made new friends.

But I also came to San Antonio to tell our story to the media. I met with Sig Christensen, military reporter for the San Antonio Express-News. Sig thought we had a tough fight ahead of us. He wondered if the Pentagon was ready for total repeal. But he listened and said he would write something later in the week.

On Friday, I sat down with Bruce Davidson, head of the editorial board at the same paper. I thought it appropriate and timely that I was in Texas talking about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" during this presidential campaign, and said so. Bruce seemed to nod his head in agreement, and then he asked tough questions. We shall see.

I look forward to being in Atlanta March 14th to continue this On The Road campaign.

-Aubrey Sarvis