HRC Blog

Last night was our final Voices of Honor event, a quick stop close to DC in Shepherdstown, WV. We arrived early afternoon to plant 700 flags on the Shepherd University campus, each flag representing a service member discharged under DADT who possessed a critical occupation. Every so often a passerby would ask what we were doing, get riled up, plant 20 flags, and leave more educated on DADT than they were just 30 minutes before. This is grassroots in its purest form, and this is why I got into this work in the first place. This is how we effect change.

As much as we fight for repeal every day, there are those in the shadows that are just as passionate, that have an existing investment in seeing this done soon: our brothers and sisters in arms who are still active. For the most part, participation in the repeal process can be a very grey area. Occasionally, however, there are opportunities for Active Duty members to help us out. Today the Department of Defense launched one of those opportunities with its anonymous “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ inbox, to be checked by a 3rd party contractor.

Dear Mr. President: Tomorrow, my family and I will mark the 126th anniversary of my grandfather President Harry Truman’s birthday. There are many reasons we celebrate his life and contributions to our nation, but in particular we are proud of his decision to desegregate the U.S. Armed Forces in July 1948, which paved the way for future civil rights advancements. It was not easy.

Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro heard arguments in Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, a challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) brought by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders on behalf of eight married same-sex couples and three widowers. The plaintiffs have been denied a broad range of rights and benefits under federal law that other married Massachusetts couples, simply because they are different-sex, can take for granted. Yesterday, GLAD lawyers argued that DOMA’s denial of federal rights and benefits to lawfully-married same-sex couples violates the guarantee of equal protection under the U.S. Constitution and asked the court to grant summary judgment – in other words, decide just on the briefs filed and not conduct a trial – in the plaintiff’s favor. You can read more about GLAD’s case here. Carisa Cunningham, GLAD's director of public affairs and education provided this first hand account:

Lithuania’s first-ever pride was set to culminate in the first-ever “March for Tolerance” this Saturday in the Lithuanian capital city of Vilnius. But, as of yesterday, that won’t happen. A Vilnius administrative court “temporarily” suspended the march on public security grounds —pending a full hearing after the march would take place on Saturday — despite police assurances that they are able to protect participants from counter-demonstrator attacks.