by Jeremy Johnson

Recently, I wrote this piece for the Palm Center about why the DoD should consider automatic upgrades of DD-214s for those who return to service after being discharged under DADT.

While I stand behind the idealism in it, in the time since I wrote it I’ve come to a harsh reality and an acceptance of the same.  My story is complex, so the consequences are, too. I can’t avoid that.

The thing that brought this to light for me was my unexpected eligibility for promotion to chief petty officer.  Despite being rusty, I took the promotion exam and have been designated as eligible to go before the selection board.  This process involves a secret “board” meeting to review eligible candidates’ official military records.  They look for a history of what you’ve accomplished to determine where you rank among your peers and promote the top performers.

I was gone from the Navy for four years and four months.  I’ve barely had 8 months to accomplish “something” I can show to them.

As a consequence, they’re going to look at my DD-214 – my discharge paper.  They are going to see “homosexual admission” as the reason for my departure; they are going to know something I never would have volunteered to them.

At first, the idea of this made me want to run to the corrections board and get a “clean” DD-214.  After all, what business is it of theirs how I left? But you see, it’s not that easy.  The last evaluation I received from the Navy had a mark on it that said my behavior was incompatible with Navy service.  On the same page, however, it noted my accomplishments and stated what a great asset I would be to civilian employers.

How do you explain that to a board of people you’ll never meet if you don’t allow them to see the entire truth?

Do I risk prejudice by NOT correcting it?  Sure.  At the end of the day, a board is human and humans are subject to bias, however understated; but I have to trust that they’ll compare me side-by-side with everyone else, and say, “Ok, so outside of that, how has he done?”  If they do, I believe I’ll be competitive, but also promoted or denied advancement based on a fair shake.

If they don’t give me that fair look – then I can at least say that by leaving my DD-214 unchanged, I’ve challenged them to stand behind their own prejudices and forced them to try and see beyond the word “homosexual”.

If we’re going to continue forward, then hiding from the past isn’t going to help.  Exposing it… will.

by Shaun Knittel

The offices of 11 Washington D.C. based gay rights organizations –including the Human Rights Campaign, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and National Center for Transgender Equality – were evacuated May 15 after receiving a series of bomb threats; one coming from as far away as California. According to reports, the first threats were reported at about 11:45 a.m. D.C. police evacuated two buildings – the Human Rights Campaign’s headquarters (729 15th Street NW) and a building at 729 15th Street NW that houses other targeted organizations.

The Los Angeles Police Department received a phone call at 8 a.m., Pacific Time Zone, threatening to blow up the “gay and lesbian headquarters,” reports The Washington Blade. The LAPD then called D.C. police, who made the decision to clear our their Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit office. Police then briefly blocked off traffic to the HRC building so they could sweep the area. Ultimately, both buildings were deemed safe and employees were allowed to return to work.

The scare marks the first time the HRC building has been evacuated.

It is important to note that the bomb threats come at a time when emotions are running high over President Barack Obama’s recent public support of same-sex marriage.

Police in both Washington and Los Angeles are investigating the bomb threats. According to the LAPD, the threats were made from a  payphone.

by Shaun Knittel
OutServe Associate Blog Editor

Last week was big for LGBT news. From the historic announcement by President Obama to the renewed anti-marriage equality by House Republicans; this week in May 2012 will be remembered for sometime. Here’s a look at the people, places and issues that shaped the lives of OutServe members this week.

PRESIDENT OBAMA ‘COMES OUT’ FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

In a historic television interview for ABC, President Obama became the first sitting president to publicly support marriage equality saying, “I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important … to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.” The president’s voiced support for marriage equality was unexpected because, up until Wednesday, he had described his views on same-sex marriage as “evolving.” Despite how Obama feels about the subject, the fact still remains that the federal Defense of Marriage Act – or DOMA – remains the law of the land and has a direct impact on the lives of lesbian, gay and bisexual service members. Still, marriage equality advocates remain hopeful that Obama will take on the task of dismantling the discriminatory measure. In the May 9 ABC interview Obama said he supports the concept of states deciding the issue on their own.

PANETTA: DADT REPEAL HAS NOT HURT MORALE

Military leaders announced this week that last year’s repeal of DADT – the ban on gays serving openly in uniform – has not affected morale or readiness so far. This while repeal advocates held back their “I told ya so’s.” At a May 10 Pentagon press conference Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters, “My view is that the military has kind of moved beyond it. It’s become part and parcel of what they’ve accepted within the military.” According to the Associated Press, military service leaders have been sending Panetta monthly updates on the impact of the repeal. No incidents have been reported as of April of this year. Army Gen Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, “What we were afraid of is we didn’t know. I think that the way we were given a year to make this assessment to educate ourselves to collaborate, to build the sense of trust on this issue, and given that time to do it, I think it worked out well.”

HOUSE REPUBLICANS VOTE TO BAN SAME-SEX MARRIAGES ON MILITARY BASES AND ALLOW HARASSMENT

Republican member of the Armed Services Committee approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would ban military bases from hosting marriages or “marriage-like ceremonies” between gay and lesbian couples. It was approved by a 37 to 24 vote. Additionally, another amendment (also passed in a straight party-line vote, 36 – 25) approved language to protect military personnel from repercussions for expressing “their moral principles and religious beliefs … concerning the appropriate and inappropriate expression of human sexuality.” The Pentagon, however, already has anti-discrimination rules in place. Also, earlier this year, the Department of Defense made it clear that decisions about the use of facilities should be made on a sexual orientation neutral basis. House Democrats argued that both amendments would violate the constitutional mandate separating church and state.

COLORADO CIVIL UNIONS AT AN IMPASSE

Lawmakers in Colorado decided this week that legislation to allow civil unions wouldn’t get a vote. Republican House Speaker Frank McNulty told reporters on May 9, “We have reached an impasse. It is unfortunate that there will be items that will not receive consideration by the House. The civil unions bill died along with several other bills, including an overhaul of school discipline policies and setting a blood-level marijuana limit for drivers.

AMENDMENT ONE NORTH CAROLINA: ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE MEASURE PASSES

Amendment One – which would make marriage between a man and a woman the only legal union recognized by the State of North Carolina – passed a statewide vote May 9. In truth, Amendment One actually goes beyond simply outlawing marriage equality, it decrees that ““marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State” – meaning that civil unions and potentially other types of domestic partnerships will no longer be legally recognized.

by Shaun Knittel
Associate Blog Editor

President Barack Obama greets hospital personnel in the ICU at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, May 1, 2012. The President presented ten Purple Hearts, three in the ICU. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama today became the first U.S. president in office to announce support for same-sex marriage during an interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts.

The president said his understanding, and eventual acceptance of, marriage equality evolved around conversations with his staff members, openly gay and lesbian service members, and conversations with his wife and daughters, reversing his previous assumptions that civil unions were good enough.

“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those Soldiers or Airmen or Marines or Sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama told Roberts, in an interview to appear on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday.

The president did however, stress that this is a personal position, and said he still supports the concept of states deciding the issue on their own.

“Today, we thank our President for acknowledging that we deserve the full benefits of citizenship, including marriage. We are grateful for his leadership and courage on this issue,” said Josh Seefried, co-director of OutServe. “Those of us in military service are always conscious of the tremendous sacrifices that our partners make to support us, and we look forward to the day when that will be reflected in the support that our country gives them.”

Citing his daughters’ comfort with the concept, Obama said, “It’s interesting, some of this is also generational. You know when I go to college campuses, sometimes I talk to college Republicans who think that I have terrible policies on the economy, on foreign policy, but are very clear that when it comes to same sex equality or, you know, sexual orientation that they believe in equality.”

“They are much more comfortable with it,” he said, adding, “You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we’re talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently. It doesn’t make sense to them and frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective.”

When asked if First Lady Michelle Obama was involved in this decision, Obama said she was, and then talked specifically about his own faith. “This is something that we’ve talked about over the years and she feels the same way that I do. In the end, the values that I care most deeply about and she cares most deeply about are how we treat other people. We are both practicing Christians and obviously this position may be considered to put us at odds with the views of others. But when we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it’s also the Golden Rule, you know, treat others the way you would want to be treated. And I think that’s what we try to impart to our kids and that’s what motivates me as president. I figure the most consistent I can be in being true to those precepts, the better I’ll be as a as a dad and a husband and hopefully the better I’ll be as president.”

Today’s announcement was somewhat of a surprise because although Obama has said his views on marriage equality were evolving he continually stopped short of outright backing it.

Mitt Romney, Obama’s likely Republican opponent, opposes same-sex marriage.

“My view is that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman,” Romney said Monday, while on the campaign trail. “That’s the position I’ve had for some time, and I don’t intend to make any adjustments at this point. … Or ever, by the way.”

Next week, members of OutServe will convene in Washington, DC, to address issues faced by spouses and partners of gay and lesbian service members. Unlike straight military spouses, they are not currently provided resources to support their families during and after deployments, nor are they given access to base facilities or any of a number of educational, counseling, healthcare, and other privileges. For example, a gay or lesbian spouse cannot pick up a child from military day care, or purchase groceries for the family at the commissary.

The Summit will gather actively-serving military of all sexual orientations with experts from resource and advocacy groups to discuss the legal rights of gay and lesbian military partners as well as resources for their support. More information is available at http://outserve.org/capital-summit/

Additionally, the May/June issue of OutServe Magazine, to be released shortly, focuses completely on LGBT military families.

Washington, D.C. – OutServe released today the full schedule of events for its historic OutServe Capital Summit: Our Families Matter, scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

The agenda may be found at  http://outserve.org/capital-summit/.  The summit will bring together 100 actively serving military members, veterans and supporters of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender military community.

Organizations participating include: Human Rights Campaign, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, Courage Campaign, Military Partners and Families Coalition, the American Military Partner Association and Homeward Deployed.

Day One of the Summit will gather actively serving military of all sexual orientations with experts from resource and advocacy groups to discuss the legal rights of gay and lesbian military families as well as resources for their support.  Day Two, organized in close cooperation with SLDN, will bring service members and their families to Capitol Hill to meet with decision-makers about the challenges of LGBT service in the military.

“We are excited to bring together actively serving military personnel together to address how we can better support LGBT military families,” said Josh Seefried, co-director of OutServe, “as we continue to be treated differently in the military, it is important for us to address how we can find support.”

Currently, the Defense of Marriage Act and three other federal statutes – Titles 10, 32, and 38 – preclude the military from providing a full range of otherwise available benefits to gay and lesbian military families.  These include, but are not limited to, housing, health care, and survivor’s benefits.

OutServe is the association of actively serving LGBT military personnel. With more than 5,500 members and 50 chapters worldwide, it is one of the largest LGBT employee resource groups in the world. OutServe works to support a professional network of LGBT military personnel and create an environment of respect in the military with regard to sexual orientation and gender identity. For more information, go to www.outserve.org

by Sue Fulton
OutServe Communications Director

• A lesbian den mother gets kicked out of the Boy Scouts because, the Boy Scouts say, “Our mission does not include teaching about sex and sexual orientation.” (CNN Report)

• Presidential candidate Rick Santorum would reinstate DADT because “sexual activity has no place in the military.” (Tom Christopher reports)

• Elaine Donnelly of CMR links an increase in sexual assault to repeal of DADT. (The New Civil Rights Movement reports) I would also point out that rape is not about sex, it’s about violence, but that’s another discussion.

And don’t even get me started on the rantings of people like Peter LaBarbera and Tony Perkins.

Those who oppose full civil rights for LGBT people are fixated on one thing: that homosexuality is all about sex.

Well, news flash: that’s twisted. At our core, being gay is not about sex, it’s about family.

It’s about who you choose to share your life with – it’s about the person who shares your dreams. It’s about first dates, wedding photos, paying bills, raising kids, going to PTA meetings, caring for each other in sickness and in health. In the military, it’s about who’s waiting anxiously at home for the next Skype chat from a deployed partner.

If you find that confusing, I have some questions for you:

• Do you stop holding hands with your spouse if children are around?
• Do you hide pictures of your family in your desk at work?
• Do you consider your wedding photos pornography?
• Do you think Sports Illustrated and Marie Claire should be wrapped in brown paper?
• And that When Harry Met Sally should be rated “X”?

Of course not. We recognize that love is a regular and healthy part of life. And it so happens that a significant portion of humans fall in love with other humans who happen to be the same gender. What happens in private between two people should be private – but those who suggest that means that LGB people must be invisible are exposing their own prejudice.

My partner Penny is a former AT&T project manager, a certified massage therapist, a breast cancer survivor and a Virgo. She loves cats, the Discovery Channel, and the ocean. We bicker over chores, eat too much pizza, agonize over her mammograms. We don’t have kids, like so many of our gay and lesbian friends do, so we focus on our work with military people; as the partner of a former military officer, she worries constantly about partners of deployed Soldiers, and has worked to provide them support.

So when I talk about my partner, I’m talking about my life, about my family.  If my talking about my partner, or about what it’s like to be gay, makes you think about SEX, then you need to see a therapist about what you’re repressing.

And if you’re browsing OutServe Magazine to get a peek at the gay porn, you’re going to be disappointed. We are human beings following E. M. Forster’s famous guidance on life: Only connect. We hope OutServe Magazine is another point of connection for you.

by Neal Simpson

The movie “Bully” opened in select theaters across the country on March 20^th. It opened everywhere April 13^th. While it addresses some LGBT youth, its focus is much broader. It’s about bullied kids from all walks of life—picked on primarily because they were different.

I went and saw the movie last night, just over a week after it came out in San Diego, expecting a nice crowd of concerned citizens to be there with me. After all, I went to see it in Hillcrest, the trendy, hip gayborhood of San Diego. Including me and my friend Chris, there were twelve of us in the theater. Worse than that, before the movie I texted several of my friends to tell them I was going and to see who wanted to go. Not one of them even knew about the movie’s existence. Not one. I have hip friends. I have activist friends. I have friends who were bullied and who believe in and fight for the cause. Yet few of my friends have any clue what this movie is or why they should see it. This is tragic.

This movie, that profiles a number of tweens and teens as they struggle with their bullies, is a brilliant film. It’s raw, deep, and painfully real. The truly cold hearted still wipe their eyes after watching the funeral for an 11 year old boy who killed himself after being relentlessly bullied. This movie is powerful, and it addresses a subject very uncomfortable for most of us to talk about because we don’t have a good solution. It’s easy as an adult to say “kids will be kids” and “bullying makes them learn to stick up for themselves.” It’s easy, that is, until the dead kid is one you know.

Why am I mad? Simple. This movie should be mandatory for all kids aged 9-19. They should play it in every middle and high school in America and there should be an attendance roster signed by each kid. Then they need to have PTA meetings where parents have to come, and the parents need to watch the movie, too. For this issue to stand a chance and getting fixed, it’s going to take all hands on deck. This isn’t something that only teachers can fight. This isn’t something only for the school’s campus police. This isn’t a problem for the (far too few) Gay-Straight Alliances across our Nation’s grade school campuses. This is a community problem that needs wholesale community support to resolve.

Tragically timed, Sioux City, Iowa lost another of its children last week to suicide. Kenneth Weishuhn was a 14-year-old boy from South O’Brien High School who committed suicide, not long after coming out to his friends as gay. The Sioux City Journal could have simply run a story about this terrible loss. They could have simply printed an obituary and moved on to other news. However, in an act of journalistic bravery and integrity, they chose to run a full page opinion piece on the front page of Sunday’s paper.  Sioux City got it right.

Bullying isn’t just limited to K-12, of course. It happens in college. It happens in the workplace. It happens in our military. Just this week, Huffington Post reported an incident involving a Command Sergeant Major allegedly bullying a female Captain, who happened to be dancing at a command function with her girlfriend. The investigation is still pending, but if even a fraction of what was reported was true, it underlines just how serious of an issue bullying can be. This incident involves adults—military professionals—and an accusation of behavior expected from a drunken high school senior at a rural prom versus from the senior enlisted advisor to a battalion commander. Although Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has come out strongly against bullying, this problem will not disappear with harsh words alone. Action at the grass roots level—changing habits of thought and habits of action—is the only way that bullying can be effectively eliminated.

It’s going to take more than the limited funding that the Bully Project has on hand to spread the word effectively. As things stand right now, this movie will probably not remain in theaters more than a few more weeks. It’s simply too expensive and too obscure to remain long term in the mainstream. That is a tragedy. In a perfect world, I could donate $10 million to the project so that they could bolster their national media campaign. I would raise awareness of the movie and the issue. I would force this to be an issue in the next presidential campaign.

I just wish that some of the cause’s biggest advocates, the Lady Gaga’s of the world, would step up and make this happen. Give some very large donations to really help change perceptions and raise awareness. The issue of bullying has been around for years, but it doesn’t make it right. Just because you survived being bullied doesn’t mean that kids should have to do it alone. Any life lost because of bullying is one too many. Take a stand with me. Raise awareness. Go see the movie and write about it on FaceBook. Tweet about it. Tell your friends and make them go see it. This movie is changing lives, but it’s not changing enough of them fast enough. And the one it misses might just be a kid you love.

By David Small

I started a new job Monday. Yay! But don’t all cheer at once. During my death by PowerPoint inprocessing, I took particular note of the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) briefing.

I am a Reservist, so this new job is a civilian government service job under the Department of the Army. I knew there was no addition of the words ‘sexual orientation’ to the military equal opportunity’s (MEO) definition of protected employment for those in uniform once “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was abolished. Baby Steps. But I had no idea that our civilian counterparts’ employment was also not overtly protected based on sexual orientation.

Race, gender… even a relatively new law from 2008 preventing bias based on genetic disposition were all covered. Sexual orientation was glaringly missing.

Googling, I found a vague reference in the Army’s Corp of Engineer’s EEO handbook to sexual orientation being among the various diversities that can exist within a workplace, but it wasn’t referenced anywhere else within the document. Or really on the web from any other Army website I visited.

I also looked up facts of discrimination based on sexual orientation on the Employment Equal Opportunity Commission web page. It states, “The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) does not enforce the protections that prohibit discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation.” Whahuh?

I was still pretty sure that sexual orientation is a protected category, just like race, color, religion, sex, national origin, handicap, age and status as a parent, so I went to the Office of Personnel Management’s page and looked up its published facts about addressing sexual orientation discrimination in federal civilian employment. It turns out Executive Order 13087, issued on May 28, 1998, prohibits discrimination based upon sexual orientation within Executive Branch civilian employment. The Executive Order states this policy uniformly by adding sexual orientation to the list of categories.

The president’s Executive Order overtly states, as a matter of federal policy, that a person’s sexual orientation should not be the basis for the denial of a job or a promotion.

So then, why didn’t the Army include sexual orientation in its briefing to me today?

It turns out that cabinet level agencies are responsible for updating their policy statements prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. Some agencies have developed parallel EEO complaint procedures allowing employees to file EEO complaints based on sexual orientation within their agencies. And many agencies have overtly included sexual orientation in their actual statements. But not a single one of the services have done so.

After perusing Army’s EEO page to see if the Army, as a cabinet level, had updated their policy, I finally found the Secretary of the Army’s policy letter. Perhaps sexual orientation falls under ‘other impermissible basis,’ but I’d kind of like to see it spelled out explicitly. I guess they could be working on this… given the Army EEO’s message from the director, mission, vision, org chart, key personnel and strategic plans are all “under construction.” I kind of doubt they are though.

The Air Force basically says the same thing, but at least acknowledges that there may be some random executive order out there they didn’t cover in their list of race, color, etc., etc., when they say “or other executive order.” And the Navy… they don’t even allude to anything outside of the standard list that was derived from the 1960s laws.

I did note, however, some other Department of Defense agencies have overtly stated protections for their employees, such as the Department of Defense Education Activity.

Secretaries of the various Armed Forces Departments: It’s time to review your EEO statements. You have Presidential approval to add sexual orientation as a protected EEO category, and have had such approval since 1998. It should take 14 years to update your EEO statements. And while you’re at it… update your MEO ones too. I’m no JAG, but can’t that executive order cover uniformed people too? They are employees of the executive branch.

WASHINGTON– Michael Poth, a Marine, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of 23-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Philip Bushong on Saturday, April 21. According to court documents, Poth, 20, claims Bushong punched him in the head, and that he acted in self defense when he stabbed Bushong around 3 a.m. in a neighborhood near the Marine Barracks in Southeast Washington, D.C., less than a block from the residence of Gen. James F. Amos, the Marine Corps commandant. Police detectives did not notice any wounds on Poth, and he did not request medical treatment.

According to a witness, the two Marines had met on a sidewalk on 8th street and had a verbal altercation. The argument turned violent and the witness overhead Poth call Bushong a gay slur before stabbing him. Bushong, who was based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., was rushed to Washington Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead shortly after.

The commander of the D.C. Police Homicide Branch, Lt. Robert Alder, told the Washington Blade, “From what we know, the argument was not over sexual orientation…and I would say at this time the information that we have appears to show that it was an insult in the heat of their argument and did not have anything to do with any perceived sexual orientation,” he said.

Based on preliminary information from the ongoing investigation, the D.C. police have also not listed the murder as a “hate crime,” which the city defines as committing a “violent act against another person based on the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or several other factors such as race, religion, or ethnicity.” However, Assistant D.C. Police Chief Diane Groomes told the Blade in an email, “When things first happen, not all facts are sorted out immediately on the scene.”

The United States Attorney’s office prosecutes most cases in the city involving a violent crime and will make the final determination of whether or not the stabbing will be classified as a “hate crime.”

A preliminary hearing will take place on May 15.

On Sunday, OutServe, the association of actively-serving LGBT U.S. military personnel and one of the largest LGBT employee resource groups in the world, released the following statement:

“We are deeply saddened by the death of Lance Corporal Phil Bushong at the hands of a fellow Marine. We are troubled by the specter that this might have been a hate crime; if so, we anticipate the authorities will pursue it to the fullest extent of the law.

This is particularly upsetting since, overall, gay and lesbian Marines have been accepted and treated equally in the force since repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ We look forward to the results of a swift and thorough investigation of this tragic incident.”

by Jeremy Johnson

By now, most of us in military LGBT circles have seen the images of a Pride flag being “raised” over a tent in Afghanistan.  The picture was posted to a Facebook group and has been seen by the masses.