Author Archives: James Apedaile

VA PROVIDES GUIDANCE TO SAME-SEX MARRIED COUPLES SEEKING BENEFITS

JOINT STATEMENT

VA PROVIDES GUIDANCE TO SAME-SEX MARRIED COUPLES SEEKING BENEFITS

Friday, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) released guidance to same-sex married couples seeking benefits to which they are entitled to under current laws and regulations. The announcement was made after working closely with the Department of Justice (DOJ) following the Windsor decision at the Supreme Court. 

Another provision of the law governing VA – 38 U.S.C. § 103(c) – requires that same-sex married couples must reside in a state that recognizes same-sex marriages. This means that same-sex married couples applying for their earned VA benefits will now be processed – provided the couple lives in a marriage equality state. Legally married same-sex couples residing in a non-marriage equality state will not have their applications processed at this time. For the full press release from the VA please visit:http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=2562

The Military Partners and Families Coalition, alongside OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (OS-SLDN) and American Veterans for Equal Rights, Inc. (AVER), applaud the VA administration on their step forward in equality for all.

“The released guidance is an exciting step forward by the VA and we acknowledge their commitment to the equal treatment of all Veterans and their families, ” said Military Partners and Families Coalition President and Co-Founder, Ariana Bostian-Kentes. “While we celebrate this victory for equality, we remain well aware of the work we have ahead.”

“This is a great step towards equality for all of our lesbian, gay and bisexual veterans. They deserve to be treated fairly and equally for the service they gave to our country. Anything less would not live up to the President’s demand that we take care of our veterans,” says OS-SLDN’s Co-Chairman of the Board, Jeff Mueller. “We still have work to do to bring equality to all of our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender veterans and servicemembers and we will continue to work, alongside partner organizations, to gain this equality.

“For 25 years American Veterans for Equal Rights has worked to secure equal treatment for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender service members who defend our nation’s freedom,” said AVER President, Lt. Col. Steve Loomis, USA(ret). “With the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the extension of benefits by the Department of Defense to the same-sex spouses and children of active duty gay and lesbian Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen, our nation’s leadership has demonstrated its commitment to ensuring equality to all the men and women who stand on guard to defend our liberty. As a Veterans Service Organization, AVER strongly believes this commitment must not stop with those who serve on active duty, but be extended to the honored veterans from World War II to Afghanistan who deserve no less for the sacred duty they have performed on behalf of our nation, regardless of where they live or who they love. AVER calls upon all Veterans Service Organizations to support full equal benefits for our nation’s veterans regardless of diversity. Honor all veterans, all the time.” 

OutServe-SLDN provides free legal counseling to service members with legal issues stemming from or relating to the previous DADT law banning military service by lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons, the regulations governing military service by HIV+ people, and the regulations addressing military service by transgender persons. For more information please visit:www.outserve-sldn.org/legal.

The VA calls on Congress to take legislative action to ensure all Veterans and their families are treated equally. “We will work with lawmakers to address the changes that are necessary to allow all veterans and their families to access the benefits they have earned and deserve,” said Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs Sloan D. Gibson.

AVER, MPFC, and OS-SLDN are committed to working together to bring full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender veterans and servicemembers. There is still work to be done to ensure everyone in all states has access to the benefits they have earned.

ABOUT AMERICAN VETERANS FOR EQUAL RIGHTS: AVER is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, chapter-based Veterans Service Organization of active, reserve, and veteran service members dedicated to full and equal rights and equitable treatment for all present and former members of the U.S. Armed Forces and their families. For more information visit www.aver.us.

ABOUT MILITARY PARTNERS AND FAMILIES COALITION: MPFC is the leading national organization founded by partners of active duty service members focused on support, education, resource, and advocacy for partners, children, and families of LGBT service members. MPFC is a private non-profit, non-partisan organization based in Washington, D.C. For more information visit www.milpfc.org.

ABOUT OUTSERVE-SLDN: OutServe-SLDN is the heir to the legacy of providing legal services to service members and veterans since 1993. From representing over 12,000 service members during the era of DADT, leading the fight to repeal DADT, through winning the federal lawsuit, McLaughlin v. Hagel, that provided benefits to same sex partners of military members, OutServe-SLDN has been on the frontlines for over 20 years. For more information, visit www.outserve-sldn.org.

American Veterans for Equal Rights statement on VA Scandal

AMERICAN VETERANS FOR EQUAL RIGHTS
For Immediate Release
May 29, 2014

Re: American Veterans for Equal Rights statement on VA Scandal

Contact:
Denny Meyer, AVER Public Affairs, 718 849-5665
Steve Loomis, AVER President, president@aver.us

Atlanta, GA (May 29, 2014) – The welfare of America’s veterans is not an election year political game to place blame or see who can outdo the other in claiming to support our nation’s honored warriors.  It is our most sacred obligation to care for those individuals who secure our liberty.  As a Veterans Service Organization, American Veterans for Equal Rights demands that Congress be less concerned with fixing blame and more concerned with fixing the problems at the VA.  While these egregious problems must be corrected without further delay, we must also recognize those many doctors, nurses, and staffers at the VA across the country who have worked tirelessly with minimum resources to serve our veterans in their time of greatest need.  Congress now must provide the appropriate level of funding to meet the increasing demands of quality care to our military veterans, as failure to adequately fund the VA is the hidden truth behind this scandal.  It is a betrayal of unequalled proportions to give lip service to those who secure our freedom while denying the funding necessary to care for them. 

AVER is the nation’s LGBT Veterans’ Service Organization, serving military personnel, veterans, and their families since 1990.

 aver.us 

AVER Co-Founder Chuck Schoen has Passed away

Charles “Chuck” Schoen, one of the six founding members of American Veterans for Equal Rights, passed away on February 27th, 2014, in Desert Hot Springs, California, at the age of 88. Chuck was a Life Member of AVER and is survived by his fellow US Navy veteran and partner of 48 years, Jack Harris, also a Life Member of AVER. Chuck Schoen served in the United States Navy during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Chuck enlisted in the US Navy in, July, 1942, at the age of 17. Chuck worked his way up from enlisted to Lieutenant JG, serving 19 years as a nuclear specialist, holding a top secret clearance and travelling three times to the Mediterranean aboard aircraft carriers. Just short of his retirement Lt. Charles Schoen, a veteran of three wars, was Less-Than-Honorably discharged from the Navy for being gay. He lost his retirement and all benefits. Some years later, working with a private attorney, Chuck was able to upgrade his discharge to Honorable, but he never received the full retirement he rightfully earned as just reward for his service to the Navy and our nation.

In 1987 Chuck worked to form Veterans C.A.R.E. (Council for American Rights and Equality), one of several LGBT veterans groups organizing to fight the ban. The group participated in the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in October, 1987. In 1990 Chuck met with five other organizations in Minneapolis to form GLBVA (Gay Lesbian Bisexual Veterans of America), later AVER. That same year he travelled to Washington, D.C. to testify on the issue of gays in the military before the United States House Subcommittee on Oversight and Veterans Affairs.

Chuck Schoen worked his entire life to end discrimination against LGBT Americans in the United States Armed Forces, and he lived long enough to see the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in 2011. Chuck is remembered as one of the quiet giants of our community, a man whose determined efforts to end injustice against LGBT people helped change our nation and help America move forward in our destiny to become the largest, most diverse society in the history of the world to embrace equal rights, equal responsibilities, and equal respect for every citizen. For this, and for his remarkable life and service to our country, the members of AVER express our heartfelt gratitude for a life well lived.

Lieutenant Chuck Schoen, shipmate, you stand relieved. We have the watch.

Chuck, in his own words:
http://vimeo.com/56662846

AVER would like to express our deepest sympathy to our fellow veteran Jack Harris in the loss of his partner. Chuck has been cremated, and his ashes will be mixed with those of Jack following his death, both to be interred together at sea.

Danny Ingram, Immediate Past President
American Veterans for Equal Rights

Transgender Veteran Survey being conducted by US Dept of Veterans Affairs

Transgender Veterans Research
The Veterans Administration, via the Puget Sound VA, is conducting one of the first VA research projects regarding Transgender Veterans, in order to be able to provide better, relevant, and more competent service.  The questionnaire is lengthy and could cause some stress for individual veterans; but we believe that the potential for directly informing the VA and for improved VA treatment makes participation worthwhile.  See below.

Seeking transgender individuals who served in the military!

Are you MTF, FTM, or any other gender that is different from your birth sex? Did you previously serve in the military? If so, we invite you to participate in a study focusing on your life experiences as a transgender Veteran and the challenges you may have faced. 

The goal of the Transgender Veteran Survey is to better understand the specific experiences of transgender Veterans and promote their health and well-being. We are especially interested in hearing the diverse voices within our communities.

This is an anonymous, web-based survey that may take approximately 1 hour to complete, and is conducted by researchers at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System. For more information, please go to www.surveymonkey.com/s/transvet, or contact the Transgender Veteran Survey staff at (206) 277-1511

AVER endorses the Restore Honor to Service Members Act

For Immediate Release       
January 31, 2014

Contact: AVER Public Affairs
Denny Meyer 718 849-5665
publicaffairs@aver.us

 AVER endorses the Restore Honor to Service Members Act
“Act will streamline the discharge upgrade process”

Albuquerque, NM – American Veterans for Equal Rights supports and endorses the Restore Honor to Service Members Act, introduced in the Senate on January 30th by Senators Shatz (D HI) and Gillibrand (D NY), following the bill’s introduction in the House of Representatives last Summer by Representatives Rangel (D NY) and Pocan (D WI).  The act will streamline the discharge upgrade process for those service members discharged “due to homosexuality” since World War II, both before and during the DADT era.

AVER was consulted during the initial development of the bill.  As noted in the Senators’ press release below, AVER has long advocated that, “LGBT veterans who served and sacrificed in silence during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, as well as those who served before and during ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ in the Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan, deserve to see their service recognized and honored at long last.”

AVER President Steve Loomis (LTC Ret.) stated, “It is extremely important that this act be passed to provide correction of less than honorable discharges given during and before Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy.  Now is time to heal the damages that an ill conceived DADT policy did to many of our patriot GLBT veterans.  It is the logical completion of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Streamlined procedures for changing the characterization, narrative and reenlistment codes for discharges for homosexuality will be announced following the passage for this bill.  Corrections are necessary to avoid inaccurate assumptions by potential employers or veterans benefits agencies when dealing with GLBT veterans.

Senator Schatz’ Press Release, including AVER’s commentary and a summary of the bill, may be seen at:http://www.schatz.senate.gov/press-releases/schatz-gillibrand-seek-justice-for-service-members-discharged-due-to-sexual-orientation

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