Frontlines: The Latest from OutServe-SLDN

Transgender Day of Remembrance: More Than a List of Names

By Allyson Robinson

The first time I saw my father cry was over a list of names.

It was the Fourth of July 1993, the summer before my senior year at West Point, and we'd come to Washington, D.C., so that I could catch a plane. I'd volunteered to spend the summer leading a platoon of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, patrolling the Korean DMZ; my dad, an Army command sergeant major, had volunteered to drive me to the airport and see me off.

My flight was scheduled to depart well before dawn (or at "o-dark-thirty," as Dad put it), so we drove down from our home in Pennsylvania the afternoon before to spend the night. We made good time, and as we crossed the Potomac we realized that there was just enough daylight left to visit one of the monuments on the National Mall before checking into our hotel. We both knew which one we wanted to see.

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11-20-12 Comment (0)

The Current State of Transgender Military Service

On this Transgender Day of Remembrance, OutServe-SLDN is providing a review the state of transgender military service. Despite the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) more than a year ago, transgender Americans are still required to serve in silence, often at great personal risk. Issues for transgender individuals may arise at the time of enlistment, appointment or commissioning into the armed forces, or may arise for personnel already serving in the military.

The military has a binary view of gender; therefore, the rules and regulations, including the language the military uses, reflect this view. Our assessment focuses on the continued bar to service in the U.S. armed forces by those who identify (or who the military identifies) as transgender. It is important to note that while the U.S. maintain a ban, many of our allies allow transgender people to serve. OutServe-SLDN is committed to changing that and ensuring that we join the nations around the world that allow service by all qualified LGBT patriots.

To read the full document, click here.  

11-20-12 By David McKean, OutServe-SLDN Legal Director | Comment (0)

Soldier Charlie Morgan carries on against Defense of Marriage Act, breast cancer

By MOLLY A.K. CONNORS Monitor staff

Sunday, November 18, 2012 

The doctor at Dana Farber Cancer Institute gave Charlie Morgan two choices: one type of chemotherapy or another type of chemotherapy.

But Charlie, a 48-year-old chief warrant officer with the New Hampshire National Guard, had had enough chemotherapy. So far, it hadn’t worked, and it made her so sick that she had to be hospitalized.

So she created a third option: no chemotherapy.

The decision, she said, was empowering.

Charlie burst onto the national scene last September when she announced that she was a lesbian on MSNBC. She was celebrating the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the policy prohibiting gays from serving openly in the military. Its repeal allowed her to share stories about her wife, Karen, and their daughter, Casey, without fear of a court-martial.

It was a triumphant day, but it marked the beginning of the fight of – and for – her life.

To read the entire article click here.

11-19-12 Comment (0)

Guest Blog: LGBT Literature a Cornerstone of Equality

As OutServe-SLDN begins a new chapter in the fight to secure equal opportunity, equal protection and equal benefits for LGBT service members and veterans, I want to recognize the role that authors, publishers and readers of LGBT literature have played – and will continue to play – in winning the freedom to serve.

Groundbreaking books like Allan Berube’s Coming Out Under Fire (1990) and Randy Shilt’s Conduct Unbecoming: Lesbians and Gays in the Military from Vietnam to the Persian Gulf Wars (1993) focused attention on the inequities in our military and helped set the stage for the fight against DADT. Heart-wrenching autobiographies like Joe Steffan’s Honor Bound (1992), Jose Zuniga’s Soldier of the Year (1995) and Grethe Cammermeyer’s Serving In Silence (2005) garnered public support by putting a human face on the issues. Dozens of other works helped advance the debate and galvanize support.

And this year’s The End of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell: The Impact In Studies and Personal Essays By Service Members and Veterans (Huffman and Schultz, eds) published by the Marine Corps University Press shows just how important the victory over DADT was to our Armed Forces – and our nation. Like so many other fans of LGBT literature and of fairness and justice, I look forward to reading the next wave of books about the lives of our brave service members and the continuing fight for full military equality.

About the Author: Former SLDN Interim Executive Director Kathleen DeBold is the Administrator of the Lambda Literary Awards, a signature program of the Lambda Literary Foundation whose mission is to nurture, celebrate, and preserve LGBT literature. For more information: www.lambdaliterary.org.

11-19-12 By Kathleen DeBold, former SLDN Interim Executive Director | Comment (0)

“This is the White House Calling”

“This is the White House calling, can you join us for a Veterans Day breakfast?” That was last Friday morning in San Diego and Veterans Day was two days away, but I didn’t hesitate to accept!

As a 23-year Navy veteran and national co-chair of OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, I was thrilled to join leaders from four dozen veterans service organizations, military service chiefs and senior political appointees to celebrate Veterans Day with the president.

Arriving at the White House gate, we were all checked against the official guest list, quickly processed through security and whisked into the East Wing where we were greeted by uniformed military White House aides. Passing through a gourmet buffet line, we entered the east room which was arranged with seating for approximately 200 guests, and I found a seat facing the entrance so as not to miss anything! I was not disappointed because in addition to other veterans leaders I was honored to shake hands with the Honorable Eric Shinseki, Secretary of Veterans Affairs (and former Chief of Staff of the Army) and the Honorable Ray Mabus, Secretary of the Navy, who joined my table for breakfast.

Following breakfast we were all escorted into the adjacent room to meet President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden in a receiving line. With a firm handshake and a warm smile, President Obama thanked me for my service and I thanked him for all he had done for veterans and encouraged him to do a little more!

Our next stop was Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknowns. After a short bus ride over the Potomac River, we all joined the audience in the amphitheater while President Obama laid a wreath at the tomb at precisely eleven o’clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month. This time commemorates the Armistice that ended World War I. A 21-gun salute rang out across the quiet hills and a lone bugler played “Taps” in honor of our fallen heroes. The president and official party then joined us inside the amphitheater for a parade of flags by veterans groups, patriotic music, a prayer and official remarks by Shinseki and the president.

The president’s address and Veterans Day Proclamation reminded us that, “The freedoms we cherish endure because of their [veterans] service and sacrifice and our country must strive to honor our veterans by fulfilling our responsibilities to them and upholding the sacred trust we share with all who have served.”

I left the amphitheater filled with a great deal of pride, yet humbled by those who sacrificed so much more than I. In a quiet moment alone, I watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns and then veterans groups pay their respects by laying their own wreaths at the tomb. Standing high on that hill, overlooking neat rows of headstones, the Capitol and the Pentagon, was a somber reminder that our freedom is not free.

11-15-12 By Captain April Heinze, USN (Retired), Co-Chair, OS-SLDN Board of Directors | Comment (0)

An Honor to Serve

I've been surprised and incredibly humbled by all those who have sent me notes and messages today thanking me for my military service. I remember my father, a Vietnam veteran, telling me how strange receiving such thanks felt to him and not knowing how to respond. Like him, I've found myself at a loss for words several times today.

A song, written by Ray Boltz (a Christian musician and proud gay man), captures best what I wish I could say to all those who've so kindly expressed their gratitude to me. It tells the story of Jeremiah Denton, a naval aviator who spent almost eight years in a POW camp and survived unspeakable torture before being freed in 1973. When he arrived in the Philippines, he said,

"We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our Commander-in-Chief and to our nation for this day. God bless America." 

That's how I feel about my service - it was an honor.

I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to serve in the U.S. Army. I'm grateful for the example of service above self set for me by my father, Command Sergeant Major (retired) Donald Robinson, my grandfathers, Technical Sergeant Elston Robinson and Sergeant George Conley, and so many others. I'm grateful to have served with so many exemplary soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, especially my classmates in the West Point class of 1994. Among them, I'm particularly grateful for the example of my wife, Captain Danyelle Robinson, who served under more difficult circumstances than I with courage and distinction. Finally, I'm grateful for the friendship and camaraderie of my fellow LGBT veterans, and particularly my transgender brothers and sisters who proudly wore our nation's uniform.

To my former comrades in arms with whom I disagree on many of the issues of the day, on this day I thank you, too, for your service. I'm grateful to have stood alongside you in the defense of our country, a country where our freedom to disagree is enshrined in the law. Like many of you, I have stood on the soil of countries where this is not the case. Like you, I'm so grateful to have had the chance to return home, especially when so many of our friends did not. We honor their memory, I believe, when we strive to make America an even better place to live, even when that striving pits us against one another.

Recently my eldest son has been talking about attending the United States Naval Academy and becoming a sailor. I will confess the thought of him in harm's way frightens me in ways I've never known before, and losing him - or any of my children - would be a loss I don't know how I would bear. And yet, I believe he is beginning to feel in his heart the same stirring of the call to selfless service that I first felt at his age - the call that led my grandfathers to the skies over Europe and to the Pacific, that led my father to Vietnam and to Kosovo, and that led me to Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. For that, too, I am grateful.

Thank you, friends, for your kindness today. It was truly an honor to serve.

It's an honor to serve, to join in the fight,
To lift up my voice, to lay down my life.
Giving glory to God, seeking none in return,
It's an honor, an honor to serve.

11-11-12 By Allyson Robinson, OutServe-SLDN Executive Director | Comment (0)

Let’s Celebrate… Then Let’s Make History Again

By Allyson D. Robinson

This week our LGBT community helped make history, as voters across the nation rejected homophobia practically en masse to protect our civil rights and affirm out humanity. We've listed our wins so often since Tuesday that they now roll like a litany off our tongues: President Obama, reelected; marriage equality's disheartening record of defeat at the ballot box, reversed; America's first openly gay Senator on her way to Washington and a cadre of lesbian, gay and bisexual representatives stepping up to take her place in the House. (By the way: well done, LGBT community.)

Some commentators declared that I'd made history myself just two weeks ago when I was named the first Executive Director of the new OutServe-SLDN, the nation's advocacy organization for LGBT service members, veterans and their families. When asked how it felt, becoming the first transgender person to lead a national LGBT civil rights organization, all I could say was that it was unbelievably humbling, a little overwhelming, and that I was glad to be joining a team that has become accustomed to making history. 

To read the entire article click here.

11-09-12 Comment (0)