SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The nation's only professional
group for active-duty gay military personnel is holding its first conference in
Las Vegas this weekend, an event only made possible by the recent lifting of
the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prohibited gay and lesbian
troops from serving openly in the armed forces.
The OutServe Leadership Summit is designed to
highlight the diversity of gays in the military and the challenges they face,
and marks the largest gathering of gay troops in one location since the ban was
lifted last month. OutServe is a formerly clandestine network of gay and
lesbian service members that lobbied the Pentagon to support repealing
"don't ask, don't tell."
The four-day conference kicked off Thursday at the
New York, New York hotel/casino with private meetings for leaders of the
group's 48 chapters around the world. At least 215 service members, veterans
and civilian supporters — registration was capped to make the event manageable
— have signed up to mingle and to attend panel discussions that range from
marriage and the push to secure benefits for gay military spouses to post-military
careers and the remaining ban on transgender troops. The CIA is among the
event's sponsors, and other scheduled workshops include topics such as
Scriptures and Homosexuality.
"There are issues of leadership and faith and
family that are specific to our community and that by addressing, our folks can
be better soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and better leaders," Sue
Fulton, a founding OutServe board member and the first openly gay West Point
graduate to be appointed to the academy's board.
OutServe announced Thursday that an openly gay
Department of Defense official, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Douglas
Wilson, would keynote the summit's Saturday night dinner, which also will
recognize a Minnesota couple, Jeff and Lori Wilfahrt, whose son was killed this
year while serving in Afghanistan with an Army unit whose members knew he was
gay.
"Part of the goal of the conference is to
recognize the past, and also as an organization plan for the future," said
Ty Walrod, a civilian who co-founded OutServe and served as its spokesman when
his friend and co-founder, Air Force 1st Lt. Josh Seefried, used an alias to
avoid being discharged under "don't ask, don't tell."
Nathaniel Frank, a historian whose 2009 book,
"Unfriendly Fire," argued that banning gays from serving freely hurt
U.S. military readiness, said that gay men and lesbians have formed secret
social networks going as far back as World War I. Aided by technology, research
and the public's increasing indifference to sexual orientation, OutServe is the
first such group to be able to take its activities from anonymous to
aboveground, he said.
"'Don't ask, don't tell' obviously required
people who in many cases needed support, the support of each other and mutual
assistance, to remain in the shadows even to one another," Frank said.
"So to have a conference like this, where people can step out of the
shadows and come together to discuss the things that are important to being the
best soldiers they can be, is historic and is essential and is one of the
reasons so many people have been advocating for an end to a policy that
requires you to hide."
OutServe leaders announced plans for the convention
in May, two months before Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of
Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and President Barack Obama certified that the
armed forces were ready to welcome openly gay and lesbian troops. Under the law
abolishing "don't ask, don't tell" that Congress passed in December,
the policy would not officially end until 60 days after such certification.
The timing ended up working out, but if the ban had
remained in effect, this weekend's summit would have most likely been postponed
"out of respect for the military and for the policy," Fulton said.
Organizers are acutely aware that some opposition
to the integration of gay and lesbian troops still exists in Washington and
within the U.S. military. They reminded conference participants this week that
they should not make comments that could be perceived as political. They were also
urged to not wear their uniforms since the conference is not an official
military event, or engage in the debauchery for which Las Vegas is known.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
