Frontlines: The Latest from OutServe-SLDN

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

Labels: On The Road

04-27-08