On Tuesday, September 20, the 17-year-old policy that has required gay service men and women to hide their sexual orientation, known as Dont Ask, Dont Tell will officially end.   Craig Stowell, a former NH Marine who spoke out in favor of marriage equality to the NH Legislature to support the rights of his gay brother, will attend the event. 

http://www.towleroad.com/2011/02/watch-former-nh-marine-speaks-out-for-marriage-equality.html

He will join special guest Kayla Calkin, the regional field director for Obama for America who will represent the President at this momentous occasion.

The law was signed by President Bill Clinton on December 21, 1993 under the full title, Dont Ask, Dont Tell, Dont Pursue and was intended as a compromise policy to allow gay and lesbian service-members to remain in the military.  The impetus for the policy was the death of Allen R. Schindler, Jr, a Navy Radioman Petty Officer Third Class who was brutally murdered by a fellow shipmate Japan on October 27, 1992 for being gay.

Repeal Day celebrations will be held around the country.  The Monadnock Live Free and Equal Coalition host the event at the Keene Public Library Auditorium on by showing the film, Serving in Silence:  The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (1995) starring Glenn Close.  Cammermeyer was a Colonel in the National Guard who was discharged for disclosing that she was a lesbian, and went on to win a court case in 1994 that resulted in her reinstatement.   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114395/

The celebration will begin at 6 with refreshments and the film will be shown at 7p.

For more information, contact Susan MacNeil at 603-357-6855, visit Monadnock Live Free and Equal Facebook page or email susan.macneil@asmronline.org.