White House Tasks Pentagon for its LGBT Pride Reception
by David Small
The White House is scheduled to host its first LGBT Pride month reception tonight, June 15, that includes openly gay service members who were invited through official Pentagon channels and organizations such as OutServe.
The White House reception comes concurrently with Associated Press reports that the Pentagon will organize its first-ever event to celebrate LGBT Pride month after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed interest in recognizing gay and lesbian troops.
Air Force Master Sgt. Philip Skopp was selected to attend the event via a nomination from the Air Force after the White House tasked the services to provide names for the event.
“I have been serving or affiliated with the Air Force for 19 years, 18 of which I served under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” so this is a big deal for me,” said Skopp who works on the Joint Staff.
White House organizers did not specify that those put forward for the opportunity be gay, however OutServe Magazine learned that at least the Air Force and Navy submissions from the Pentagon included LGBT service members.
Read More »Marching with OutServe for Pride
By David Small
I’m not the best gay in the world because I’ve never really understood Pride. I’ve gone out to the parades and shown my support. But I was bored by the politicians marching, uncomfortable by displays of nudity, empathetic for the drag queens wearing 100-pound wigs in 100 degree temps, and self-deprecating comparing my body to the boys on the floats. I am also generally too cheap to buy festival priced alcohol. So mostly Pride for me has been about wandering the streets with friends.
Until this year.
Read More »Pride Month
by David Small
OutServe Actively Serving Council Member Todd Burton posted a note on the main OutServe Facebook page that blew my mind. His deployed unit’s equal opportunity officer sent an email out to his entire command regarding LGBT pride month. We have truly progressed eons forward when we can use official military channels to promote diversity and equality for the LGBT community. The email reads:
Subject: Pride Month for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
Read More »Debating the Need to Change Blood Donation Rules
By David Small
Below is a Facebook conversation sparked by the USA Today article “Federal Policy Blocks Many Gay Men from Blood Donation.” The conversation debates the decades-old rule banning men who have sex with men to donate blood products to the nation’s supplies. The conversation begs the question whether the ban is a form of discrimination, a form of sound risk management, or a lazy federal regulation that could be improved through better testing of the blood supply.
B: “Did you know that men who have sex with other men are banned by the FDA from donating blood? Have anal sex just once, and you’re banned for life. Seems we still have a long way to go on the equality front…”
S: “That’s been around since the early 80s. Same rule for people with tattoos. Higher risk populations shouldn’t give blood if the blood people won’t properly screen it.”
Read More »Gen Colin Powell Backs Gay Marriage
by David Small
In an interview on CNN’s Situation Room yesterday, Retired Gen. Colin Powell and former Bush Administration Secretary of State came out in favor of same-sex marriage.
“I have no problem with it,” he said in the interview. “As I’ve thought about gay marriage, I know a lot of friends who are individually gay but are in partnerships with loved ones, and they are as stable a family as my family is, and they raise children. And so I don’t see any reason not to say that they should be able to get married.”
Way to go Gen. Powell! Thank you for your support of marriage equality.
Read the interview transcript here.
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Protected Employment
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.
Read More »Secretary Wilson’s Last Day
by David Small
Today, Mr. Doug Wilson will walk out of the Pentagon, leaving his post as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and his status as the highest-ranking openly gay man serving in the Department of Defense, and quite possibly the federal government.
In his exit interview with Politico, like many of us, he said being gay was only part of who he is. We can understand that. But because he was gay, he understood OutServe and what we are trying to do. He brought a kind and empathetic ear to the process of the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to those of us serving under it.
He opened his office and his press briefing room to us to witness the historic event. And he recounted his personal journey toward repeal at OutServe’s first gathering in Las Vegas last fall. In short, he was a mentor to our small, but growing organization.
While being the top press officer during the demise of DADT may be well what he is most remembered for, let us not forget all of the other very significant trials and tribulations he had to deal with during his tenure. Two wars. The end of Iraq. Significant Budget Cuts.
I was particularly moved by a statement in the Politico article regarding Gen. McCrystal’s downfall that relayed Mr. Wilson’s guiding leadership principle.
“For Wilson, the incident reinforced his belief that military service is about quiet leadership, not loud personalities — a principle that he said has guided his decisions as head of Pentagon media operations.”
On behalf of OutServe Magazine, Mr. Wilson, I’d like to thank you publicly for your service to our nation and for all you did to include us. Inclusion and understanding is what we’ve fought hard for, and you helped get us to where we are today. In your quiet leadership, you have earned our utmost respect. Best of luck in your future endeavors.
Read More »Drugs: Not in Our Military
By David Small
I’m pretty naïve about drug culture. One of my favorite stories about my naivety regards a night out a decade ago dancing with a guy at Velvet Nation in Washington, D.C. Nation used to be a big warehouse club with thumpa-thumpa-thumpa music until 4 a.m. This cute, little guy leans over to me and says, “I’m Rollin.” My response: “I’m David.” How was I supposed to know ‘rolling’ meant he was on ecstasy? I thought his name was Roland.
But recently I learned a little about drugs—or more accurately, what they can do to your life. I did my civic duty to sit on a jury in Arlington County for a drug possession case. We ultimately convicted the woman of heroin possession and a couple of other things. With all of her charges, she faced up to 12 years in prison and $7,500 in fines. It was very eye opening to me to see how one night of partying could destroy this young woman’s life. She had overdosed and almost died. And now she has a felony conviction she will have to report on any job application for the rest of her life. And she’s going to jail. Her life is forever altered.
I don’t believe that in the military drug use is as rampant as the civil sector, but it’s still there and it could forever harm your military career. I used to be the Air Force public affairs guy in the Pentagon for the Air Force’s crime and slime account. It’s other nickname: the sex, drugs, and rock & roll. I recall cases of drug rings on bases, sexcapades gone sour involving drug abuse and other salacious stories that made their way into the press. If Air Force Times could download my brain, we’d be shoved back under the Army to get our stuff together (Until they find out the Army has worse problems!) I should preface that none of the issues I dealt with then had any overt gay overtones. As one Army general once told me about being in command, “I had more heterosexual issues than I did homosexual issues…” But yes, drug use exists in the military and it is a problem that the military, I believe, has taken on appropriately and aggressively.
So with my renewed interest in drug cases I went Googling, mainly to see what half of the stuff in that trial meant. On my Internet safari, I found a study on the increased rates of substance abuse within the gay community released this month by the Center for American Progress. The study, “Why the Gay and Transgender Population Experiences Higher Rates of Substance Use: Many Use to Cope with Discrimination and Prejudice” is a must read.
Read More »‘Out’ and Kosher
By David Small
In high school Latin class, Mrs. Gray caught me giving photocopies of my homework translations to my friend. She said it wasn’t “kosher.” We were allowed to help each other with homework, but apparently my interpretation of help crossed an invisible line of kosherness. While it was allowable for me to photocopy my homework for my friend, I shouldn’t have done it.
When I was in journalism school, I had to take a journalism ethics class that talked about propriety. We had lengthy discussions about whether to publish photos showing dead people at accident sites. Most of us decided that, for propriety’s sake, we wouldn’t. We could, but we wouldn’t. It wasn’t proper.
These lessons of kosherality and propriety came to mind this week when I was reading that, for probably the first time ever, Metro Weekly’s cover boy was an actively serving seaman.
Read More »Diversity Requires Open-Mindedness
By David Small
“One’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
I totally stole that quote from somebody’s OKCupid profile. But it got me thinking. As a community who claims to embrace diversity and celebrates Pride with a rainbow flag representing the many faces of the LGBT community, we can be some of the most close-minded people on the planet sometimes.
Gay boys shun lesbians, faking sickness over the mere mention of lady parts. Bisexuals are told to get off the fence. Twinks won’t socialize with bears (We won’t eat you, but don’t get between me and the pizza!). And lets not even talk about how we openly welcome transgender people into our ranks, but then don’t understand how the T fits in with LGB.
Not everybody in our community is like this, but such attitude can be rampant in cliques. How can we embrace diversity across the country when we barely embrace it among ourselves?
When I was asked to lead the OutServe blog, I sought to recruit 10 diverse opinions representing as many different views as possible to create a conversation about the issues that affect our community. While not all of these folks have posted something yet, we are slowly growing our ranks.
Upcoming potential contributors include a gay USAFA cadet, a lesbian focused on gay families, an operator, an African-American, a deployed senior enlisted guy, and a transgender Army officer.
Actively blogging today, we have a combat female veteran, a political pundit, a gay conservative, a Marine commander, and me, a Reservist.
We are also actively seeking prominent individuals from various other groups to capitalize on their notoriety and bring people in to OutServe. It’s a great marketing ploy to increase advertising!
I want to talk about one particular blogger I recruited and whom I call a personal friend. R. Clarke Cooper. In his civilian capacity, he is the executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans. I met him years ago when he was a Bush appointee and reconnected with him through the Reserve Officers Association.
It is time for our community, in its efforts toward diversity, to admit there does indeed exist a rare organism: the gay republican. These are an idealistic breed for sure… thinking that the government should be smaller than it is now, and in its reduction in size, remove itself from our bedrooms.
Yes, folks, when you surgically remove the Christian right from the republican base, at their core, idealistic republicans could be described more an advocate for gay rights than idealistic democrats—at least if we were in the 1800s. Complications have been added since. But I certainly applaud Clarke for taking up the flag and running.
We might also open our eyes and count the votes for DADT repeal and realize without the efforts of the Log Cabin Republicans advocating our collective cause, we wouldn’t have had the republican votes necessary for repeal.
Clarke has told me he feels more comfortable as an out gay man at the Republican National Committee, than as an out conservative in LGBT circles. Ironic huh?
My politics are broad. I happen to think Mr. Obama has been an absolutely fantastic president. But I’ve also voted republican in the past and endured the self-hater remarks.
I know that people realize there is more than one opinion. Please also recognize that the OutServe blog is just an avenue to foster conversation. Discourse will only strengthen our community for the better, but we need to be open-minded and actually listen to each other. We can’t talk over each other all the time. Doing so is the exact problem we face with those who collectively despise us for religious or moral reasons.
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