After a great Thanksgiving holiday with my family, I am back out on the road. Each year, I am especially thankful for all the men and women who serve in the Armed Forces to ensure my freedom. Now that I am back out, I am headed to Portland, Maine, where we are already hard at work in our efforts to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Yesterday, HRC teamed up with Organizing for America and Equality Maine in beautiful Portland for a phone bank to urge Mainers to contact Senators Collins and Snowe about repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in this lame-duck session of Congress. The law discriminates against gay, lesbian and bisexual military members, and it is long overdue for repeal. We were able to contact many constituents who agreed to call their Senators right after our conversations. Many even agreed to join us in the fight to repeal by signing up to volunteer for our next phone bank. It was great to see Mainers stay involved with the campaign after a hectic election cycle and after getting stuffed for the holiday.
Even after learning the positive results of the Pentagon’s study about open service and military readiness, we continue to put pressure on the Senate to vote for repeal. The study shows that a strong majority of our men and women in uniform and their families have no issue with gays and lesbians serving their country openly.
If you have already called, emailed or visited your Senators about repealing DADT, please do it again. We are so close to victory. We are in a state of emergency of now and we need all hands on deck. Contact your friends, your family, your neighbors and ask them to call their Senators and urge them to vote for repeal. To call your Senators, call Congress at (202) 224-3121 and urge your Senators to support the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” If you’d like to volunteer with us in Maine, please contact Jessica Osborn at Jessica.osborn@hrc.org.
