Equality Magazine Winter 2011

The momentum grew. More hearings followed on the Hill; Gates, Mullen and the Pentagon Working Group co-chairs spoke in favor of repeal.

But day by day, the tables seemed to turn. Reid was at odds with the Republican leadership and Collins over amendments and debate time on the defense authorization bill. The calendar kept rearing its ugly head.

It was a historic “18 days in December,” said

Jonathan Capehart, a Washington Post editorial writer, who followed the wrangling closely. The victory, he noted, included the “never-say-die attitudes of activists” along with some luck, as well as steady leadership by Lieberman, Collins, Hoyer, Levin, Reid, Murphy and Pelosi.

Most importantly, steadfast leadership and an all-out effort by HRC staffers, members and supporters was a huge factor — going back to November 2009 and even earlier, according to Solmonese.

“The vote was one of the most important civil rights votes of our time,” the New York Times said in an editorial the day after the Senate vote. “Perhaps a new moral momentum may help… erase the remaining traces of prejudice in public life, including Washington’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriage.”

Finally, on Dec. 22, 2010, history was made. President Obama signed into law a measure that would clear the path for ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

HRC’s efforts have included…

• Conducting the “Voices of Honor” tour in partnership with Servicemembers United, with stops in 50+ cities nationwide and concluding with Veterans Lobby Day, co-sponsored by over 70 other organizations, with hundreds of lesbian, gay and straight veterans lobbying members of Congress; • Reaching out to new allied communities and forging new relationships by hosting a Spanishlanguage “Voces de Honor” event and creating the first-ever, HRC Spanish-language “Take Action” web page; • Conducting the Countdown 2010 Grassroots Campaign in partnership with Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, to prompt supporters to contact their senators through in-district meetings and written communications; • Sending 19 million e-mails to members and supporters nationwide to take action on DADT repeal, generating over 625,000 e-mails urging repeal to members of Congress;

• Conducting polling in key districts to better understand public opinion and educate decision makers; • Placing print and online ads in national and local publications, including full-page ads in Politico, the Cleveland Plain Dealer (Ohio), the Boston Herald (Mass.), the Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.), and the Indianapolis Star (Ind.) and ads in 20 major LGBT outlets calling on key senators to put the security of our nation and our troops first; • Holding regular strategy meetings with coalition partners; • Recruiting and mobilizing 20,000 veterans to speak out, holding public events and blanketing local media with pro-repeal messages to raise the issue’s profile; • Calling on the Pentagon to release the report on how to integrate gays and lesbians into the military earlier than the December 1 deadline; and

• Launching two campaigns in late fall, prompting more than 8,000 reported telephone calls to U.S. Senate offices and 37,000 e-mails to Senate offices.

As part of its nationwide “Repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’” campaign, HRC put extra emphasis on six priority states whose U.S. senators were identified as key votes on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee: Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Virginia and West Virginia. Four of those six senators voted to repeal the law.

After repeal successfully passed in the committee, HRC placed emphasis on 11 additional states whose senators were identified as key votes: Alaska, Arkansas, Illinois, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and West Virginia. HRC placed 27 staff on the ground in key states.

For a full list of HRC’s efforts on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, see www.hrc.org/repealdadt.

photos: Mary Schilpp for HRC

• Gathering nearly 50,000 handwritten, prorepeal communications to Congress;

• Conducting more than 1,000 grassroots lobby visits, both in Washington, D.C., and in districts;

WWW.HRC.ORG

winter 2011

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