Why Repealing of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Was Critical for LGBTQ Equality An address to the American Legion Kenneth H. Nash Post 8, Washington D.C. on Veterans Day, 2021: I would like to reflect on how inclusion strengthens our nation as we mark the tenth anniversary of the repeal of…

Every current or former service member is extraordinary for two simple reasons: they agreed to defend our nation against enemies even at risk to their own lives; and they took an oath to defend our constitution and our democracy. …

“Who knows who Barbara Gittings was?” I asked my staff the day after she had died in 2007. Only three of the 16 staff members raised their hands. I flashed an autographed photo of her she had given me after I moderated a discussion with her and a fellow LGBTQ…

“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” which was repealed ten years ago, was the ultimate in cancel culture. It required gays to keep their identity an absolute secret as a condition of military service. …

In 2008, Peter Singer, a senior fellow at the staid Brookings Institution, published a monograph cheekily titled “How TheReal World Ended ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell.’” He began by noting that in 1992, the same year that presidential candidate Bill Clinton proposed the idea of lesbian, gay and bisexual Americans serving…

One of the things I learned while advocating for repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” the military’s ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual service members who came out, which was repealed ten years ago, is that leaders lean into controversy. Leaders do not avoid problems, they confront them. A couple…

There were many factors leading to the repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” ten years ago on September 20, 2011. One of them was 9/11. Gay discharges had surged from 617 in 1994, the year “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was implemented, to 1,273 in 2001, the highest since 1987. As…

One of the Obama Administration’s mistakes was the failure to hold accountable any high-level official post 9/11 for their participation in or authorization of torture. Failure to hold accountable those who commit crimes invites history to repeat itself. …

The Department of Justice faces a reckoning. How it and President Biden face it has serious consequences for the future of our democracy. At its heart is the extent of executive power among three co-equal branches of government. …