HE ASKS, HE TELLS: (Sorry, Kaus.) A good friend, and gin-u-wine war hero, will be in town Tuesday speaking on perhaps the one contemporary Gay Issue where we actually agree: the military’s unrealistic (maybe if we clap our hands real loud, all the fairies will disappear!) and damaging policy. Here’s the information (I love how a dashing rescuer is only a slightly bigger draw than free pizza…):

CSSMM LUNCHEON BRIEFING:

“GAYS AND LESBIANS AT WAR: Military Service in Iraq and Afghanistan Under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell'”

LONG-AWAITED NEW STUDY DOCUMENTING SERVICE OF GAY AND LESBIAN SOLDIERS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

Featuring a gay Army Ranger who was on the team that rescued POW Private Jessica Lynch

PIZZA WILL BE SERVED

Your staff is invited to a luncheon briefing on Tuesday, September 21 at 12:00 p.m.in 2203 Rayburn House Office Bldg. on the release of the long-awaited study on gay and lesbian soldiers who have served with honor and distinction in Afghanistan and Iraq. We hope you and your office colleagues can join us.

FEATURED PRESENTERS: Nathaniel Frank, research fellow at the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military (CSSMM) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, will present his study–“Gays and Lesbians at War”–at the luncheon. Frank is a nationally published researcher and commentator on the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, whose work has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post and The New Republic.

Brian Hughes was a gay Army Ranger who was part of the task force that rescued Private Jessica Lynch, a POW during the combat phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Ranger regiment is an elite infantry unit of the Army, which is part of the Special Operations Command. Hughes took time off from Yale University to join the Army in August of 2000, where he became an E5 Seargent (NCO). In the fall of 2002, Hughes was deployed to Afghanistan where he did search patrols for personnel and weapons. He then cycled into Iraq for the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he participated in the Lynch rescue. He returned to Afghanistan in the Spring of 2004 and then separated from the Army on August 30, 2004.

RADM Alan M. Steinman, USPHS/USCG (Ret.), is one of the highest-ranking officers of the U.S. military to come out as openly gay. In December 2003, Steinman joined two retired Generals in coming out to a New York Times reporter, adding his view that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy damages military readiness. Rear Admiral Steinman retired from the U.S. Coast Guard in 1997 as the Coast Guard’s Director of Health and Safety (equivalent to the position of Surgeon General in the other branches of the military).

Patrick Guerriero, is President of the Liberty Education Forum, a Washington, DC based think tank that conducts research and educates people on a range of issues affecting gay and lesbian Americans, including the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Guerriero will make remarks on the study’s significance and the status of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

We invite you to attend this staff briefing to have access to the latest expert information on a critical topic facing our country. The challenges facing the U.S. military as it fights a war on terror are numerous, and this study sheds new light on how the current military mission and the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy are on a collision course. We hope your staff can join us.

In order to ensure we have adequate food and space, we ask that you RSVP no later than 10:00am the day of the briefing by contacting me at 202-329-7928 or you can RSVP via email at [email protected]. A reminder will be sent out.

If you have any questions regarding the briefing, please contact me at the phone number or email listed above as well.

Sincerely,

KEVIN IVERS

Washington Representative, CSSMM