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Respect for All Veterans
by
Senator Mark Udall |
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From repealing the military's harmful Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy to overturning the federal Defense of Marriage Act, I’m proud of the progress we’ve made toward equality for all Americans over the last few years. As a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, I know that this progress has been especially meaningful for those who have defended our country and sacrificed for our freedoms.
As the proud son of a WWII veteran, my parents taught me that our military families have earned our country’s deepest thanks and respect for their selfless sacrifices. But despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act on the grounds that same-sex marriages cannot be treated as second-class under federal law, not all veterans and their families have access to the benefits they have earned.
Indeed, at least
one discriminatory law still prevents some
military families and veterans from accessing
the benefits that others receive.
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An
interview with
US Representative
Mike Michaud (D ME)
Out and Proud
by Denny Meyer |
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A friend of Mike Michaud
recently told him that, when he came out to his
mother "-at least it wasn't national news."
For Maine Congressman Michaud, it was. He
came out at the beginning of November in an
op-ed in the
Bangor Daily News,
which quickly went viral. He's not the
first openly gay out member of Congress, so why
should it matter? That question, in fact,
was the point and subtitle of his coming-out
op-ed. The fact is, he's running for
Governor of Maine.
It was not that long ago that
James McGreevy,
then Governor of New Jersey, came out publicly,
and in the same speech, he resigned. At
the time that I interviewed him, back in 2006,
he said, "...once you live
or show your truth there are negative
consequences. We value appearances over the
truth; we value form over substance; we value
societal norms over integrity."
A lot has
changed in the few short years since then.
James McGreevy was outed by scandal mongers
scenting the blood of bigotry.
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Remembering Kennedy |
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This November 22nd marked the
fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy, my hero. I was
seventeen years old at the time, on that day
that changed history. I was sitting alone
in my high school's nerdy audio visual work room,
which I oversaw in my senior year, watching
TV, surrounded by old Bell and Howell
projectors, stacks of educational film canisters
addressed back to Indiana University, film
repair splicers, and folding portable screens.
I was feeling kind of smug, being the only one
privileged to sit with his feet on a desk
watching TV, behind a locked steel door, when everyone else was in some dull
classroom. Suddenly, there was a bulletin
on the black and white screen; the voice of
Walter Cronkite came on and he somberly
announced that the President had been shot.
WHAT!?
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Elmer Lokkins
WWII Vet
1919 - 2013
In Memoriam
by Denny Meyer
with Christina Dean |
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Few of us can claim to have had
lives that spanned nearly a century and two
millennia, from after the end of World War I to the
day after National Coming Out Day in 2013.
How few of us have lived the century of changes
in our freedom and lived to see the progress
that we fought for all our lives. Elmer Lokkins, together with his partner of nearly 70,
years did all of that and more. As a
soldier in World War II, he battled his way
across the Japanese occupied islands of the
South Pacific and liberated the Philippines,
under heavy bombardment at the side of General
Swift, during the invasion of Lingayen Gulf
in 1945.
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