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NEWS ARTICLE
HRC's Special Screening of "Ask Not"
9/16/2009 - Orlando, FL - Voices of Honor: A Generation Under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ special screening of “Ask Not,” a PBS documentary on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Wednesday, September 16, 7:00 p.m. at the Plaza Theater, 425 N. Bumby Avenue, Orlando.
The Human Rights Campaign, in partnership with Servicemembers United, the nation's largest organization of gay and lesbian troops and veterans and their straight allies, will visit Orlando as part of “Voices of Honor: A Generation Under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”
The national tour highlights the discriminatory law that hurts military readiness and national security while putting American service members fighting overseas at risk. The Orlando visit will include a documentary screening.
Following the screening, join HRC President Joe Solmonese and Marine Staff Sergeant Eric Alva (the first service member injured in Operation Iraqi Freedom) and film principles Alex Nicholson and Jarrod Chlapowski for a Q&A session.
After more than 15 years, many former congressional and senior military leaders who were involved in the construction and implementation of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” have recently called for the law to be reviewed or repealed, including former Joint Chiefs Chairmen Gen. John Shalikashvili and Gen. Colin Powell, and former Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Sam Nunn (D-GA). The Military Readiness Enhancement Act (H.R. 1283), which would repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” was introduced in the U.S. House earlier this year.
Passed in 1993, the “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” law allows gay, lesbian and bisexual service personnel to serve in the armed forces as long as their sexual orientation is not publicly disclosed or discovered. As of 2008, more than 13,000 men and women have been fired from the military because of their sexual orientation, including more than 60 Arabic linguists and nearly 800 other service members in critical occupational fields.
To learn more, visit: www.hrc.org/VoicesOfHonor
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