Monthly Archives: July 2023

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