Today, the board of directors of OutServe/SLDN issued a statement through Outservemag.com explaining that “the Board and staff are in the process of transforming the organization from primarily a legal services organization into a membership services and advocacy organization.” Board Co-Chair Josh Seefried went on to apologize for the events of the last few days stating…
March 9, OutServe-SLDN’s Executive Director Allyson Robinson gave a speech at a Washington, D.C. fundraiser for her organization that was billed as “The State of LGBT Military Service Address.” In her speech she gave a description of how her family supported her through her time, first at West Point and then later during her military…
For most people, an invitation to sing the national anthem at a San Diego Padres baseball game would be the thrill of a lifetime. Not so for Bobby Thompson. In 2007, with retirement from the U.S. Navy just a few years away, singing publicly with the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus meant he could be…
Last week, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) and OutServe, the association of actively serving LGBT military personnel, announced the selection of transgender Army veteran Allyson Robinson to lead the newly combined organization. In her first interview since her appointment Robinson spoke to San Diego LGBT Weekly columnist Autumn Sandeen about her new role and what…
For more than a decade, the U.S. Dept. of Defense’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy claimed the careers, livelihoods and in some cases, the lives of American servicemembers whose only crime was volunteering to serve our nation and being gay, bi or lesbian at the same time. The contention among repeal advocates was that…
LOS ANGELES – The first academic study of the effects of repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) has found that the new policy of open service has had no overall negative impact on military readiness, unit cohesion, recruitment, retention or morale. The University Of California Los Angeles Palm Center released the study, the first academic…
NEW YORK – Barbara Walters will serve as emcee for a major upcoming event that will mark the one-year anniversary of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) repeal and honor Admiral Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The event, Celebrating Our Heroes, is scheduled to take place Tuesday, Sept. 18 aboard the…
I was honored to receive the Spirit of Stonewall Friend of Pride award this year alongside Dr. Aaron Bruce and Tess Banko. I extend my most heartfelt congratulations to them and to the other San Diego Pride award winners. We must continue the fight for equal rights together. I started walking in the San Diego…
WASHINGTON, June 15 – Today OutServe, the association of actively-serving LGBT U.S. military personnel and one of the largest LGBT employee resource groups in the world, praised Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s LGBT Pride message. The Secretary issued a video message to all Defense Department employees commemorating June as LGBT Pride Month, and recognizing gay…
WASHINGTON D.C. — Army Captain Stephen Hill and his husband, Joshua Snyder, have joined the Freedom to Marry and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN). Hill made headlines this year for being booed in a presidential debate after asking if the military’s discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy would be reinstated if then-hopeful Rick Santorum would…
