I first met Tanya in 1991, when I was President of Gay & Lesbian Veterans of Vermont and she was the congressional liason for the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force in Washington. It was in 1991 when a bare handful of local lgbt military & veterans groups around the country began to network, to organize across the distances between our locales into the first national movement focused on ending the Ban. Tanya, a knowledgable, sensible and politically astute advocate on behalf of all lgbt issues, was THE facilitator who paved the way for the birth of this enduring movement.

It was she who opened the doors for us to come from around the country, together for the first time under the auspices of the annual conference in DC of the UMass William Joiner Center for Peace, War and Social Consequences, and who introduced us to Dr. Paul Camacho, Director of the Center, on whose gathering we were able to piggyback the first national gathering of our people that year. That gathering is the instance of the organizing of GLBVA (Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Veterans of America). National Officers were selected and local organizations reorganized themselves into GLBVA chapters.

The first major tactical effort by the movement was to prepare for the upcoming 1993 March on Washington. Once again, Tanya was the person who created the links between the MOW organizing committee and the lgbt military community, resulting in one of our members being appointed MOW National Coordinator for military and veteran participation in the March. Not only did Tanya, making use of her NGLTF position and her extensive personal contacts and knowledge, lay the groundwork for our participation in a cohesive manner, she also even opened her office and her home to those of us from distant places around the nation as a place of resource, haven and rest when we traveled to the national capital for meetings, planning, lobbying, etc.

Tanya’s presence at NGLTF created a symbiosis that was lacking elsewhere. There was a good deal of controversy back then, between DC-based glbt advocacies and outlying people and groups because many felt that high-visibility DC-based organizations took inappropriate credit for and advantage of local and state-wide efforts for lgbt rights when they contributed nothing to the locales in return. Living in Vermont at the time, I was one of many who was astounded when one such DC-based group claimed to have had a driving role in our success in 1992, in passing what was then the nation’s most comprehensive statewide anti-discriminitation law. Not a one of us in Vermont could recall any instance in which this group offered any assistance at all. The Task Force was always the exception to the tendency of Washington groups to suck all the fund-raising back to their coffers – and programs – leaving local groups stranded and broke in their wake. Peri Jude Radicec and Tanya Domi provided a vision and a constancy of leadership that ensured support for local groups at home and when traveling to DC. In particular, Tanya saw to it that every veteran advocate who went to DC to work ‘our’ issue had administrative and logistical support at Task Force HQ, and was THE person in DC to go to for assistance in lining up meetings with Congressional, Administration and even Pentagon officials. It was, in fact, specifically the work of Tanya Domi that resulted in the historic first-ever meeting of glbt advocates with a member of the President’s Cabinet, when national officers of GLBVA sat down with Herschel Gober, Secretary of Veterans Affairs in 1993.

I marched in awe with Tanya in the 1992 Washington DC Forth of July Parade, when she headed a marching contingent of lgbt military and veterans. We were amused to know that our presence that day resulted in the first official salute to lgbt veterans by the national military establishment. Military affairs in the nation’s capital are under the authority of the Military District of Washington, whose uniformed representatives were present on the parade reviewing stand that day. I remember two Navy captains in particular, representing the Military District, one of whom turned to leave the stand as the very visible – and publicly announced – contingent of lgbt vets approached the reviewing officials. Tanya immediately saw the intended insult and drew attention to the fact that the National Colors (as borne by our color guard, of course) were about to pass the officials by ordering our contingent to make presentation. This caught the officer who intended to insult us by ignoring our presence in an awkward position: insult us and the Flag by ignoring our passing, or turn, come to attention and render salute as military decorum requires. The offending officer was caught by another officer on the reviewing stand and made to turn and render appropriate honor as we passed.

Funny, how Tanya always manages to make her point effectively. What a huge loss her discharge was to the Army, and to a nation who needs skill, wisdom and the very same sort of dedication which she has so consistently exemplified. What a huge gain not only to our community, but to the nation which needs her service in the on-going battle for justice.

God love ya, Tanya. I sure do.