Military families need to know this is only one step in the process. Applying for housing allowances, medical care, updating IRS tax withholding, military personnel files, and other benefits have separate enrollment procedures. Most commands have developed checklists to assist newly married service members with this process.

Over the next several days, military personnel, finance, medical, housing, and other offices are going to begin dealing with LGBT families for the first time. There will be unanticipated complications and the Military Services are prepared to assist in resolving issues. If service members encounter barriers and can’t resolve them through the military chain-of-command, contact our legal team at 1-800-538-7418×100 or 202-328-3244×100 or by email at legal@outserve-sldn.org.

“OutServe-SLDN is pleased to see these steps by the military services. Service members and their families have long been denied fair and equal treatment. Tuesday begins our steps forward on benefits that will begin to resolve this inequality. We look forward to the day when such barriers are eliminated,” stated April Heinze, OutServe-SLDN board chair.

OutServe-SLDN board member and Hospital Corpsman Second Class Jeffry Priela-Tam, currently at Camp Lejuene, NC, says this day has been a long time coming for him and husband, Chris. “It comes as a great relief because now I don’t have to pay out of pocket to live off base while forced to maintain a barracks room. It’s a huge step towards equality. I can’t wait for the day when all states that do not currently recognize our marriage will come to their senses and fall on the right side of humanity.”

Significant barriers to service remain. These include transgender service, access to military equal opportunity programs, updating Status of Forces Agreements to allow family members to accompany service members on overseas assignments, ensuring access to veteran benefits, updating the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and ensuring a positive and supportive command climate to strengthen our military culture of inclusion. OutServe-SLDN continues working to empower, support, and defend LGBT service members, veterans, and families.

Washington, DC – In a 5 to 4 decision, the United States Supreme Court today ruled in the case U.S. v. Windsor that part of the so­called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which became law in 1996, is unconstitutional because it is a deprivation of the equal protection of the law guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. Today’s ruling strikes down Section 3 of the law which allowed the federal government to recognize only marriages between a man and a woman.

“Today, we congratulate plaintiff Edie Windsor, her incredible legal team, and all those who have stood up for the freedom to marry in America. This victory is especially sweet for our nation’s lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members, who can now not only serve openly, but can serve knowing that their loving, committed, and legal marriages will be recognized by the military they serve and the nation they protect,” said Army veteran and OutServe­SLDN Executive Director Allyson Robinson.

Currently twelve states and the District of Columbia permit same­gender marriages. Robinson said today’s victory adds to the rapidly growing momentum for marriage in the U.S.

“This victory energizes our work moving forward and lays a new, strong foundation for ensuring marriage for all loving and committed couples in our country across all fifty states,” said Robinson.

Robinson thanked the plaintiffs in OutServe­SLDN’s landmark litigation, McLaughlin v. Panetta, which was filed in October 2011 on behalf of eight married gay and lesbian military couples seeking equal recognition, support, and benefits, for their part in bringing the stories of gay and lesbian military families to the fore. Despite today’s ruling, the McLaughlin case will move forward because the case challenges the constitutionality of other statutes in addition to DOMA.

“We owe a debt of gratitude to the McLaughlin plaintiffs today, including the late Chief Warrant Officer Charlie Morgan and her family, all of whom courageously stepped forward to do something very difficult: to file suit against their employer, the Department of Defense, as well the Department of Veterans Affairs. In doing so, they stood up not only for their own families, but for countless LGBT military families they will never know. Their stories have been, and will continue to be, a game­changer as the marriage fight marches forward,” said Robinson.

Robinson called on the Pentagon to act immediately and unequivocally to implement today’s ruling.“Secretary Hagel has already demonstrated his commitment to LGBT military families, just as he promised he would during his confirmation. Today the Court cleared the way for him to take the next step. We expect Secretary Hagel to act so that all families affected by today’s ruling gain access to full recognition, benefits, and support no later than sixty days from today. OutServe­SLDN will be working with the Pentagon and the VA to ensure that the greatest number of federal protections, responsibilities and programs are available to all military couples as soon as possible,” said Robinson.

ABOUT OUTSERVE­-SLDN: OutServe­-SLDN is the association of actively serving LGBT military personnel with more than fifty chapters and 6500 members around the world. It works to support a professional network of LGBT military personnel and create an environment of respect in the military with regard to sexual orientation and gender identity. It is a non­partisan, non­profit, legal services and policy organization dedicated to bringing about full LGBT equality to America’s military and ending all forms of discrimination and harassment of military personnel on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. OS­-SLDN provides free and direct legal assistance to service members and veterans affected by the repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law and the prior regulatory ban on open service, as well as those currently serving who may experience harassment or discrimination. For more information, visit www.outserve­sldn.org.

This past Saturday an email containing the contents of confidential internal discussions of the OS-SLDN Board of Directors was erroneously distributed to an email list containing recipients outside of the Board of Directors. The board would like to clarify that the drafted item was only part of a series of discussions aimed at transitioning the organization in what has been a rapidly changing financial and political landscape facing the LGBT movement, which will soon include a Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. As is the case with many of our partners at this critical time, OS-SLDN is facing real and significant financial obstacles, forcing the Board to look critically at all aspects of its operations and to consider difficult decisions, including cutting costs and staffing reductions.

Board Co-Chair, Josh Seefried, stated, “There is no excuse for the series of events that transpired this past weekend. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I sincerely apologize for this as well as the impact it’s had on our staff’s and members’ trust and confidence in the organization. Allyson Robinson has led OutServe-SLDN as one of the most transformational leaders of this movement, and there is not a member serving on this board who does not respect and admire her work for this organization and the LGBT movement.”

“Allyson has continually put our LGBT service members, veterans, and their families first in the changes the organization has faced since the repeal of DADT,” stated co-chair April Heinze. “As many in our community know, the LGBT movement is evolving quickly, and so will its institutions. Many people thought that after the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ all the military LGBT organizations would or should disappear. As Allyson Robinson and her staff have so powerfully and effectively reminded the nation, the mission for full equality in our Armed Forces is incomplete.”

Robinson, a 1994 graduate of West Point, has led OutServe-SLDN through some of the movement’s most significant victories since the repeal of DADT, including the public vetting of Chuck Hagel for the office of Secretary of Defense, the highlighting of ongoing discrimination against gay and lesbian military families at Ft. Bragg and elsewhere, and the extension of non-DOMA restricted benefits to same-sex military partners. She has worked tirelessly to put military families at the center of the discussion of the Defense of Marriage Act and has become the nation’s leading advocate for transgender inclusion in the military.

In light of these events, the board and Allyson will be working together toward a successful transition of the organization. Allyson will continue to serve as Executive Director throughout this period.

OS-SLDN operations and planned events, unless explicitly noted, will continue as planned to include the 2013 OutServe-SLDN Leadership Conference which will be held in San Antonio, Texas in October.

The OS-SLDN Board of Directors
OutServe-SLDN is the association of actively serving LGBT military personnel with more than fifty chapters and 6500 members around the world. It works to support a professional network of LGBT military personnel and create an environment of respect in the military with regard to sexual orientation and gender identity. For more information, visit www.outserve-sldn.org.

Very few people ever get the opportunity in this life to hear from those whose lives they’ve touched just how much they are loved and respected. I have no words to express my gratitude for the hundreds who have reached out to me privately or stood up for me publicly over these last 24 hours to show their support: from the military community, the LGBT community, and most especially, most dear to me, the troops of OutServe-SLDN and their families. For that, I am blessed beyond measure.

In light of the momentous events the coming days hold for us all, I intend to put this matter behind us and look forward to shifting the focus back to where it belongs: our LGBT service members, veterans, and families, who sacrifice so much every day, and their ongoing fight for full equality.

— Allyson Robinson, Executive Director, OutServe-SLDN

Brigadier General Tammy Smith

An Oregon native, Smith was commissioned in 1986 as an Army Second Lieutenant, graduating from the University of Oregon Reserve Officer Training Corps program. Smith was selected for Brigadier General after having served in the Army for 26 years, including tours of duty in Afghanistan, Panama, Costa Rica, the Pentagon, and numerous stateside posts. Her awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit medal, the Bronze Star, and her senior parachutist wings.  She holds a Doctor of Management degree in Organizational Leadership from the University of Phoenix. She is a graduate of the Army War College.

Tracey Hepner, Smith’s wife, is a co-founder of the Military Partners and Families Coalition, a non-profit military family support organization. Hepner was invited to sit with First Lady Michelle Obama at the 2013 State of the Union Address in recognition of her tireless work in support of LGBT military families.

In a March 2013 interview, Smith discussed the significance of her promotion. She said, “Leadership is about being a role model. I don’t think I’m a role model because I’m gay. I believe I’m a role model because I adhere to Army values by being true to my authentic self.” She has been featured in the Oregon Quarterly magazine and More magazine’s 2013 Fierce List, which included 50 women who made brave stands. She and Hepner, who were married in Washington, DC in March 2012, were also featured in Out magazine’s Love Issue.

Smith is the recipient of the 2013 Advocacy Award from Out & Equal Workplace Advocates. Smith was also recognized with the Courage Award from Knights Out, an organization of West Point Alumni, Staff, and Faculty who are united in supporting the rights of LGBT soldiers to openly serve their country. Smith is especially proud that her hometown of Oakland, Oregon hosted a congratulatory, affirming reception in honor of her promotion.

“We are honored to include Brigadier General Tammy S. Smith as one of our grand marshals for 2013, said Ryan Bos, Capital Pride’s Executive Director. She exemplifies the meaning of a superhero and her story is a great example of the progress made following the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell!”

The Capital Pride Parade travels 1.5 miles through the Dupont and Logan Circle neighborhoods of northwest Washington, DC. The Parade is expected to attract more than 100,000 spectators.  It will include more than 170 contingents, floats, vehicles, walkers, and entertainment. It will feature local and national businesses, Capital Pride Heroes and Engendered Spirit awardees, politicians, community groups and organizations, drag queens, dogs, and much more.

What: 38^th Annual Pride Parade

Where: Dupont and Logan Circle neighborhoods

Date: Saturday, June 8, 2013

Time: 4:30 PM to 7:00 PM

Webpage:  www.capitalpride.org/parade

On May 30, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and NASPA—Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education will honor six women innovators in media, advocacy, politics, and business at the Women of Distinction Awards ceremony as part of the 28th annual National Conference for College Women Student Leaders (NCCWSL) at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Katie Miller serves on the OutServe-SLDN Board of Directors and is an Associate Editor for OutServe Magazine.

Honorees include gay rights activist Katie Miller, Owens Media Group CEO Deborah Owens, Girls Who Code Founder Reshma Saujani, University of Miami President Donna Shalala, Women Thrive Worldwide Co-founder and President Ritu Sharma, and CytonomeST Chief Scientific Officer Lydia Villa-Komaroff.

In addition to the Women of Distinction awards, NCCWSL will feature keynote speeches from author and educator Rachel Simmons and MindWorks Leadership CEO Nina Godiwalla on Friday, May 31, and Saturday, June 1, respectively.

This year, more than 700 college and university students from around the world will attend the conference for skill-building workshops, networking, and volunteer opportunities in addition to hearing these inspiring speakers. Students will also attend a graduate school fair held during the conference.

“We are delighted that this year’s NCCWSL will be bigger than ever. A record number of students registered and will have the opportunity to connect with more graduate schools and employers than ever,” said AAUW Executive Director Linda D. Hallman, CAE. “This outstanding conference provides students a unique opportunity to meet and talk with renowned and influential women leaders.”

“As student affairs professionals, we engage and empower women student leaders through campus opportunities and responsibilities every day,” said NASPA President Kevin Kruger. “We are excited that women who participate in this year’s NCCWSL event will return to their campuses with renewed energy and innovative ideas to effect change in their communities.”

Students agree: “NCCWSL was an experience of a lifetime,” said past attendee Jennifer Bullock from Norwalk Community College in Connecticut. “I learned things that I am sure I will take with me through the rest of my life.”

The 2013 NCCWSL Women of Distinction Awards ceremony and reception are supported by AAUW of Maryland’s Barbara Fetterhoff Honorary Fund. A full listing of NCCWSL supporters and a conference schedule are available on the NCCWSL website.

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) empowers women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy, and research. Our nonpartisan, nonprofit organization has more than 165,000 members and supporters across the United States, as well as 1,000 local branches and 800 college and university partners. Since AAUW’s founding in 1881, our members have examined and taken positions on the fundamental issues of the day — educational, social, economic, and political. Learn more and join us at www.aauw.org.

NASPA—Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education is the leading association for the advancement, health, and sustainability of the student affairs profession. It serves a full range of professionals who provide programs, experiences, and services that cultivate student learning and success in concert with the mission of our colleges and universities. Founded in 1919, NASPA comprises more than 13,000 members in all 50 states, 29 countries, and eight U.S. territories. Through high-quality professional development, strong policy advocacy, and substantive research to inform practice, NASPA meets the diverse needs and invests in realizing the potential of all its members under the guiding principles of integrity, innovation, inclusion, and inquiry. For more information, please visit www.naspa.org.

Give OUT on May 9th!
We invite you to be part of history and join OutServe-SLDN as we participate in the first national Give OUT Day on May 9th. It’s a great way to use your social media network to make a difference for our men and women in uniform, our veterans, and their families.

What is Give OUT Day?
Give OUT Day is a new national initiative that will engage hundreds of organizations and mobilize thousands of people on a single day across the country to give in support LGBT causes.

How does it work?
Donate online through OutServe-SLDN’s Give OUT Day page or create your own fundraising page here to get your friends and family involved. You can make a donation now or set it to be processed on May 9th.

Why do we need you?
The repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was just the beginning of our fight for full LGBT military equality – not the end. Your support today will help us keep up the fight for these brave patriots, veterans, and their families.

Click here to get started!

OutServe-SLDN, the association of actively serving LGBT military personnel, veterans, families, and their supporters, today announced that it will hold its first hackathon in Washington, DC, on Friday, May 10, 2013. The event is designed to be an opportunity to connect service members, veterans, computer programmers, and public relations professionals to collaborate on ways to grow the LGBT military equality movement and how OutServe-SLDN can better serve its members and supporters.

The ideas developed will be presented at a reception following the hackathon to members of the OutServe-SLDN Board of Directors, Military Advisory Council, and key donors for consideration. The Board of Directors will meet the following day to consider incorporating ideas into the organization’s strategic plan for the future.

“Nonprofits, like any other businesses, only survive and thrive on the quality of the ideas they are generating and the problems they are solving. This kind of innovative input and planning represents exactly the approach we should be taking to advance our mission and involve the best and brightest in our strategic vision setting. This kind of activity can speed up innovation by 5000 percent,” said OutServe-SLDN Board of Directors Co-Chair Josh Seefried, who co-founded OutServe via Facebook and was part of a team that recently won the national Startup Bus competition. For more on that competition, click here.

Seefried and board co-chair, April Heinze, will lead the board’s involvement in the hackathon, and the board of directors will meet on Saturday in Washington, DC to incorporate the ideas developed and presented into the organization’s strategic plan for the future.

“We know that the ways we’ve won the battles of the past will not be the ways we win and sustain equality moving forward. I’m excited about this opportunity to hear from a diverse group of individuals with varied backgrounds about new ideas for moving OutServe-SLDN forward, growing our membership and support-base, and strengthening the movement to achieve full LGBT military equality,” said Army veteran and OutServe Executive Director Allyson Robinson. “This represents a unique, innovative, and relevant approach to leading in the LGBT movement.”

The Hackathon will take place from Noon until 5:30 p.m. at the Washington DC office of Blue State Digital, located at 406 7th Street, NW. Reception location to be announced at a later date. For more information or to RSVP for the Hackathon and/or the reception afterwards, click here.

Sponsors include Blue State Digital, Wells Consulting, Social Driver, and Adam Shapiro Public Relations.
The hashtag for the event will be #OutServeHACK.

About OutServe-SLDN: OutServe-SLDN is the association of actively serving LGBT military personnel with more than fifty chapters and 6500 members around the world It works to support a professional network of LGBT military personnel and create an environment of respect in the military with regard to sexual orientation and gender identity. It is a non-partisan, non-profit, legal services and policy organization dedicated to bringing about full LGBT equality to America’s military and ending all forms of discrimination and harassment of military personnel on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. OS-SLDN provides free and direct legal assistance to service members and veterans affected by the repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law and the prior regulatory ban on open service, as well as those currently serving who may experience harassment or discrimination. For more information, visit www.outserve-sldn.org.

Left: Ashley Broadway. Right: her wife, Lt.Col Heather Mack, and their son Carson

By David Small

After posting a response to an on-base club’s refusal to grant her membership, Ashley Broadway, wife of Army Lt. Col. Heather Mack, has been in the news, and now the Department of Defense General Counsel staffers are reviewing the situation.

While the Association of Bragg Officers’ Spouses at Fort Bragg, N.C., is a non-federal entity, they must adhere to certain DoD instructions if they want access to base facilities, according to Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, spokesman for the DoD General Counsel’s office. “This is the sole legal framework around which the Department and its agencies exercise control over non-federal entities,” he said.

The specific instruction in question, though, has some interpretation problems. While it includes a non-discrimination clause, it does not reference sexual orientation, despite other federal family readiness programs inclusiveness.

Department of Defense Instruction 1000.15 states, “No person because of race, color, creed, sex, age, disability or national origin shall be unlawfully denied membership, unlawfully excluded from participation or otherwise subjected to unlawful discrimination by any non-federal entity or private organization covered by this instruction.”

The Fort Bragg club’s bylaws do adhere to the DoD instruction, however according to BuzzFeed, after the controversy, the group added the requirement to have a dependent military ID card to be granted membership.

The Defense of Marriage Act does not prohibit issuing a military ID card to legally married, same-sex spouses, according to a formal request by OutServe-SLDN to Leon Panetta, the Secretary of Defense, however the department has yet to respond.

According to the letter, “a military ID is required for on-base activities, and there is no statute preventing issuance of IDs to same-sex spouses. An ID would also allow the same-sex spouse to bring dependent children on base without being accompanied by the service member. The ability to bring a child to on-base services such as health care facilities is essential. Currently, DODI 1000.13 governs eligibility for ID cards, and should be updated to extend IDs to same-sex spouses.”

Other areas OutServe-SLDN have asked DoD to extend benefits to same-sex spouses include morale, welfare and recreation facilities, military family housing, commissary and exchange access, family programs, legal services, hospital visitation rights, joint duty assignments for dual-career military couples, exemptions from hostile-fire areas, command-sponsored dependent status and space-available travel, and spousal privilege in courts martial. 

“The Department is conducting a deliberative and comprehensive review of the possibility of extending eligibility for benefits, when legally permitted, to same-sex domestic partners,” spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen wrote in an email. “The benefits are being examined from a policy, fiscal, legal and feasibility perspective.”

That review has been ongoing since August 2011 when SLDN wrote Panetta. To date, DoD has refused to move on these suggestions and was unable to say where they were in the process of their review, or why it was taking more than a year.

“The Pentagon has dragged its feet on this issue for far too long, and it’s time for the Secretary to act. Situations like the one at Fort Bragg could be avoided if commanders were given the guidance they need to address these issues with consistency and equity. All it takes is the stroke of a pen,” said Army Veteran and OutServe-SLDN Executive Director Allyson Robinson.

“The facts here are simple: there is no legal need or justification for any spouse to be excluded from a group like this, which exists to provide support to the spouses and families of our military men and women and the communities they serve,” she said.

Though the organization operates on Fort Bragg with permission from the commanding general, the group is not formally affiliated with the military and is not required to bar membership to Broadway under DOMA. As a private, non-profit organization not governed by laws that apply to the federal government, OutServe-SLDN has established that there is no legal basis that would require same-sex military spouses to be excluded from the Association of Bragg Officers’ Spouses.

 “With programs such as these, which are not bound by a federal definition of marriage, commanders at all levels should use their influence to ensure all service members’ families are treated equally,” said Robinson.

Broadway’s open letter to the president of the Association of Bragg Officers’ Spouses was posted Dec. 10 to the American Military Partner Association’s website. Broadway has been with Mack for 15 years and married Nov. 10.

Her letter also references a similar incident at Little Rock Air Force Base where Tanisha Ward, wife of deployed Airman 1st Class Hensley, was denied access to the Little Rock Air Force Base Spouse’s Club.

Robinson said there are many such organizations on bases across the U.S. and around the world where same-sex families have been included and welcomed since the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in September 2011.

“Our Commander-in-Chief supports us; I was the first same-sex military spouse invited by the First Lady to attend her Mother’s Day Tea,” Broadway wrote. “We are a part of the face of this country’s future, and the White House, Pentagon, and many other posts are leaning forward to embrace this progression.”

While such clubs maintain their own charters, official family support programs, governed by Department of Defense instruction 1342.22, can support same-sex spouses and other unofficially sanctioned dependent family members.

This instruction states the family readiness system will “address the varied composition, cultural diversity, and demographics of service members and their families.”

“The Department knows that family support is critical to mission readiness and we value the service and sacrifices of each and every family member,” said Breasseale. “Unlike non-federal entities such as the various Officers’ Spouse Groups, the [Family Readiness System] is an officially sanctioned, service-governed entity that is inclusive of all family members identified by each individual service member, regardless of sexual orientation or marital status.”

According to a statement on the Fort Bragg club’s webpage, due to “recent interest in the membership requirements of our organization,” the club plans to discuss the issue at their next board meeting. “As an all-volunteer board during this busy holiday season, we request your patience in allowing us to properly address and review this membership issue while fulfilling our obligations to our current membership as well as to our families.” 

“‘Equality can wait’ has never been the answer, but that’s the message the club sent with this tepid and dismissive statement today,” Robinson said in a release today. “It’s certainly not the answer for Ashley Broadway or the families of gay and lesbian service members at Fort Bragg and on military installations across the country, who like all our men and women in uniform, need support during the holiday season perhaps more than any other time of the year. The group doesn’t need a meeting; Ashley clearly qualifies under its existing, approved bylaws. It simply needs to accept Ashley into its membership, and it should do so immediately.”