Event Central

***Note***THIS EVENT IS ACTUALLY TAKING PLACE ON SEPT. 19, 2011

Rochester, Minn. On the eve of the official end to the U.S. militarys Dont Ask, Dont Tell (DADT) policy, veteran Bronson Lemer will read from his memoir The Last Deployment: How a Gay, Hammer-Swinging Twentysomething Survived a Year in Iraq (University of Wisconsin Press, 2011) and lead a community discussion on the controversial policy at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 19th, 2011 at Barnes & Noble Bookstore (Chateau Theatre) in downtown Rochester.

According to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, since being enacted in 1993 by President Clinton, more than 13,000 military members have been discharged from the U.S. military under DADT. The policy prohibits military personnel from discriminating against or harassing other military personnel because of their sexual orientation, as well as prohibiting members of the military from serving openly as a gay man or woman. A congressional bill to repeal DADT was enacted in December 2010 and certified by Congress on July 22, 2011, setting the end of DADT for September 20, 2011.

Lemer saw the effect of DADT first-hand while serving in Iraq. During a time of war, theres a military brotherhood, but then you have a policy that keeps people from being who they really are. The soldiers fighting in the war have enough going on with combat and getting along with each other, Lemer says. You dont really need to know if the man or woman next to you is gay. What it boils down to is that a troops sexuality shouldnt matter to the completion of a mission in the military, and people are starting to realize that.

The event will include a community discussion with audience members on the effects of DADT, the impact the repeal will have on the military, and other issues associated with the modern military and writing about war.

About Bronson Lemer

Bronson Lemer served in the North Dakota Army National Guard from 1997 to 2004, including deployments to Kosovo and Iraq. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in English and mass communications from Minnesota State University Moorhead and a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Minnesota State University Mankato. His writing has appeared in Blue Earth Review, The Reykjavik Grapevine, and Twentysomething Essays from Twentysomething Writers. He teaches writing at the University of Minnesota Rochester.

For more information about The Last Deployment: How a Gay, Hammer-Swinging Twentysomething Survived a Year in Iraq, please visit http://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/4814.htmor contact Chris Caldwell, Publicity Manager, at (608) 263-0734 or publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu.