Category Archives: Newsflash

JOIN THE NATION’S FIRST ALL-LGBTQ HONOR FLIGHT!

ATTENTION TO ORDERS: Time to Continue Your Mission
BE A PART OF HISTORY. JOIN THE NATION’S FIRST ALL-LGBTQ HONOR FLIGHT!
Honor Flight South Florida wants to fill their September 23, 2023, flight with as many LGBTQ veterans as possible.
The Pride Center at Equality Park wants to help promote that effort among the communities we serve. We want to thank our veterans for the commitment they made to serve our country.
Attention LGBTQ Veterans: It’s Time to Continue Your Mission
Your one-day mission to Washington DC on Saturday, September 23, 2023, is to visit and reflect at the memorials built in your honor. Honor Flight provides round-trip airfare, deluxe bus transportation throughout our nation’s capital with a police escort, meals, a commemorative T-shirt, and other amenities needed to travel comfortably.
Upon your return, there will be a homecoming at the airport as you disembark.
Honor Flight provides top priority to the most senior defenders of freedom, WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam-era veterans, and those veterans who are terminally ill.
Honor Flight South Florida is a 100% all-volunteer organization, dedicated solely to honoring veterans in Broward, Dade, and Monroe counties by flying these veterans to Washington DC to visit and reflect at the memorials built in their honor. Every veteran flies absolutely free.
Before accepting this mission, please check for compliance with the eligibility and DD214 information below.
Copy this link to Accept Your Mission:
After you have accepted your mission by filling out and submitting the Honor Flight Veteran Application, please contact Paula Lauriano-Stiehm and Shawn White at The Pride Center to identify yourself as an LGBTQ veteran. We want to support Honor Flight’s goal to fill this flight with seventy LGBTQ veterans.
Paula Lauriano-Stiehm
Special Events Coordinator
PLauriano-Stiehm@pridecenterflorida.org
954-463-9005 ext. 301
Shawn White
Active Aging Specialist
SWhite@pridecenterflorida.org
9540463-9005 ext. 114
Eligibilty & DD214 Information
A DD214 form is a certificate of release or discharge from active duty.
Every veteran who has served in the U.S. military is eligible to make an application with Honor Flight. Combat service or foreign deployment is NOT required. The HFSF criteria include 6-months of service in the U.S. military with an honorable discharge, confirmed by the DD214/discharge papers provided by the veteran.
Honor Flight South Florida is currently considering veterans for an honor flight who served between December 7, 1941, and May 7, 1975. Veteran beneficiaries of the Honor Flight program do not pay for any aspect of their Honor Flight trip.
First priority for a trip is given to World War II veterans. Terminally ill veterans of any service period may be given the same priority as WWII veterans (physician statement required.)
Proof of service, such as your DD214 is required. A copy must be submitted one of two ways:
If you have an electronic version (Scan PDF or JPG, etc.) of the DD214, email it to, veterans@honorflightsouthflorida.org
If you prefer to mail in your DD214, mail it to:
• Honor Flight South Florida, Inc.
• PO Box 16821
• Plantation, Florida 33318
If you served between 1941-1975 yet are unable to travel on a flight, we hold periodic “Virtual Honor Flights” where the event is local and around 3 hours in length. To find out more about what Virtual Honor Flight is all about, copy this link:
For information about becoming an Honor Flight Guardian, copy this link:

RE: National Defense Authorization Act Denies Care to Service Members

FROM AVER NATIONAL

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 14, 2023

RE:  National Defense Authorization Act Denies Care to Service Members

Contact:  AVER Public Affairs, 678.596.1311, dannyingram1776@gmail.com

San Antonio, TX “Military City USA” (JUL 14, 2023)
“Congress should never pick and choose which service members will be treated for medical conditions and which will not. The denial of critical care based on political grandstanding is a betrayal of a sacred obligation to care for soldiers and their families. Breaking that obligation undermines national security by eroding the trust of the men and women who volunteer to defend our nation’s freedom.”

American Veterans for Equal Rights, the nation’s oldest LGBTQ Veterans Service Organization, joins other VSOs from around the country in expressing anger over the betrayal of a sacred obligation made to the men and women who serve our country in the FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act. FY2024 NDAA denies life-saving gender-affirming care not only to Transgender service members but the Transgender children of service members. The American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, and American Medical Association support gender-affirming care as critical in the treatment of Gender Dysphoria.

The Department of Defense utilizes evidence-based clinical practice guidelines to care for every service member who seeks care. In addition to world-class healthcare services such as chemical exposure and burn treatment, prosthetic devices, gynecological care and non-selective abortion care, the DOD provides full support for mental disorders such as substance abuse disorders, PTSD, Major Depressive Disorder, and Gender Dysphoria.

Using their proven clinical practice guidelines the DOD seeks to develop and provide the very best care they can to every service member and their children. DOD medical services are there to save lives, not to practice politics.

Every man and woman who serves our country deserves the very best treatment available. No exceptions. Thank all who serve. Honor all who serve. Protect all who serve.

Approved by,

Julz Carey
President, AVER
aver.us

Respect for Marriage Act and Codification of Military Service

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 13, 2022
RE: Respect for Marriage Act and Codification of Military Service
Contact: AVER Public Affairs, 678.596.1311 publicaffairs@aver.us
San Antonio, TX “Military City USA” (DEC 13, 2022) – American Veterans for Equal Rights, the nation’s oldest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender veterans service organization, salutes the bi-partisan passage of the Respect for Marriage Act (RMA), a law that will protect the right of LGBTQ people and people of all races to marry. In light of recent statements from United States Supreme Court justices that the Court might reconsider cases that decided the freedom to marry, these rights could be jeopardized by future decisions. RMA codifies federal recognition of same-sex marriage.
AVER is equally concerned that the hard-won right of LGBT service in the US military should likewise be codified into law. Military service is not protected by law. Congress’s Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948 codified the right of women to serve in the military, however, the racial integration of the military, as well as the right of LGBT people to serve, was only accomplished by executive order, and can be reversed by subsequent executive order, as was the case with former-president Trump’s repeal of Transgender service in 2020.
Until protections for LGBT service members are codified into law, the right to serve remains at the whim of politicians. President Biden’s executive order that states “all Americans who are qualified to serve in the Armed Forces of the United States should be able to serve” must be protected by law. We call upon Congress to do so.

Letter to President Biden and VP Harris

Joseph Biden
President, United States of America
Kamala Harris
Vice President, United States of America

Re : Congratulations; LGBT military/veterans’ rights

President Biden, Vice President Harris,

American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER) is our nation’s LGBT veterans’ service organization advocating for the rights and benefits of our veterans, reservists, and active service members. On behalf of our members and National board, I would like to heartily congratulate you on becoming America’s President and Vice President. As a woman of Hispanic heritage , and as a veteran, I am both inspired and hopeful for our country. AVER stands ready to support the new administration in its effort to lead and unify the nation towards a more equitable future for all Americans.

In the previous Obama-Biden administration, Congressional legislation repealing the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, ensured the right of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Americans to serve our country in freedom and equality. Executive orders went a long way to ensuring the same rights for Transgender American patriots who have served our nation valiantly since the Civil War, in great personal peril to themselves.

We were greatly heartened by your new administration’s statements on your first day in office, assuring us regarding your intention to give equal rights to Transgender Americans and those who want to serve in our armed forces. We urge you to guarantee full equal rights and benefits to Transgender volunteers to serve openly and proudly, including full medical benefits. We wish to remind you that our Transgender veterans are still denied benefits such as sexual reassignment surgery provided by the Veterans Administration. We urge you to rectify these discriminatory policies first by Executive Order followed by Congressional legislation.

Thank you again for boldly stepping forward to lead our nation.

Sincerely,
Julz Carey, Chief Petty Officer (Ret), United States Coast Guard
President, American Veterans For Equal Rights AVER.us

Download PDF version of letter here: AVER Congratulatory letter to the new administration

Press Release : New Horizons

Press Release : New Horizons 7 Nov 2020

Contact:

Julz Carey, AVER President, firstjulz@gmail.com

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

Re: AVER Congratulates President Elect Biden and Vice President Elect Harris

American Veterans for Equal Rights, America’s oldest LGBT Veteran Service Organization, congratulates President Elect Joe Biden and Vice President Elect Kamala Harris.

AVER President, Julz Carey, said, “Our congratulations to Joe Biden on his election as the 46th President of the United States. As veterans and citizens it is now our responsibility to support the new President in his efforts to heal wounds and work with both sides of the aisle. We heartily congratulate, and are especially looking forward to Kamala Harris inspiring all Americans as the nation’s first woman of color and first child of immigrants to serve as Vice President.”

AVER President Emeritus Steve Loomis observed that, “President Elect Joseph Biden and Vice President Elect Kamala Harris are devoted supporters of LGBT, our active duty military and veterans, their rights, and their unrelenting service to our country.”

“We look forward to President-elect Biden fulfilling his promise to lift the ban on Transgender service implemented by his predecessor. Our American Armed Forces will be stronger, more effective, and more reflective of our increasingly diverse citizenship when all LGBT patriots who volunteer to defend our nation’s freedom are allowed to serve with pride and authenticity.” said former AVER President Danny Ingram.

AVER will continue working with respect for our service members, past and present, to protect our health during this dangerous pandemic, protect our rights, and to extend those protections to all. Particular attention will be paid to our Transgender community, and to our senior veterans. AVER has encouraged removing the ban against military service by transgender citizens and encourages our new President to effect that at the first opportunity.

American Veterans for Equal Rights is the nation’s LGBT Veterans Service Organization advocating for equality among all who serve. www.aver.us

Kristin Beck to Receive Matlovich Medal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 10, 2018
RE: Kristin Beck to Receive Matlovich Medal

Contact:  AVER Public Affairs, Denny Meyer 718.849.5665 publicaffairs@aver.us
AVER President, Steve Loomis, LTC, USA, (Ret) 505.301.1737

San Antonio, TX “Military City USA” (AUG 10, 2018)

American Veterans For Equal Rights (AVER) will present its highest honor, the Leonard Matlovich Medal for Distinguished Service, to United States Navy Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Kristin Beck.

Senior Chief Petty Officer Beck served 20 years in the Navy, taking part in 13 deployments, including seven combat deployments. Her many decorations include a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star with Valor device. Kristin Beck, who came out as a trans woman in 2013, has become one of the nation’s most prominent leaders in the fight for Transgender Service in the United States Military.

The medal is named in honor of USAF TechSgt Leonard Matlovich who was one of the first gay service members to purposely out himself to the military to fight the ban on LGBT service members. His service in Vietnam earned him a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. He was involuntarily discharged following his public gay declaration. The battle he bravely began ended 37 years later with the ban on gay service was lifted in 2011. Past recipients of the Matlovich Medal include President Barack Obama, Admiral Mike Mullen, Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, and gay activist PFC, Dr. Frank Kameny, a World War II veteran and founder of the modern LGBT civil rights movement.

American Veterans For Equal Rights, founded in 1990, is the nation’s LGBT veterans’ service organization advocating for the rights and benefits of LGBT service members and veterans. AVER’s Matlovich Medal will be presented to Senior Chief Beck at the AVER national convention to be held September 20-23, 2018, in Chicago.

For more information on the 2018 AVER convention please visit the website located at https://www.averchicago.org/national-convention/