Category Archives: General Info

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

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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December 7, 1941

americanfreedomToday marks the beginning of the modern civil rights movement in the United States of America.  72 years ago today the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked US military forces on the island territory of Hawaii, setting into motion a massive mobilization of Americans that would leave our nation dramatically changed in its demands for equality.  Women, racial minorities, LGBT people, and other disenfranchised citizens would experience military life and the challenges of war where survival was based on teamwork and divisions disappeared in the necessity of working side-by-side with people who were different.   Prejudices were dissolved, and minorities demonstrated their equal patriotism through courage and sacrifice.  American servicemen and women would experience the horrors of the battlefield and discoveries of atrocities committed against minorities overseas, and they would return home determined that oppression was an unacceptable step towards Holocaust.  Women would leave traditional roles and take on jobs outside the home for the first time, and many more would serve in the war performing vital duties where women had never been welcome before.  And LGBT Americans would leave the oppressive life of small town America to discover a world where they were more free to find love and fulfillment.   Today we must pause to remember the many young men and women who lost their lives this day, and give a thoughtful Pearl Harbormoment to recall the beginning of a titanic struggle, a struggle that would leave our great nation as one of the superpowers of the earth, and a people determined to build a society where all citizens could one day enjoy genuine freedom and the the true justice of equality.  We are the evolving dream of American largely due to the events of today, those incredible 72 years ago.

Danny Ingram, National Treasurer and Immediate Past President
American Veterans for Equal Rights
www.aver.us  treasurer@aver.us

AVER Convention 2013

AVER Convention Registration

REGISTRATION COSTS

Full Registration:

Thursday, September 19th 2013 thru Sunday, September 22nd 2013 -$175*

Late Registration: $190.00* per person. After September 9th, 2013
– Includes:

  • 3 continental breakfasts
  • Friday lunch
  • Saturday banquet
  • Sunday brunch
  • Access to all meetings
  • Coffee breaks
  • Hospitality suite refreshments, bar in evenings.
  • Shuttle bus to downtown Denver, GLBT clubs, and restaurants
Single Day Resigstration
Offers Friday September 20th 2013 Saturday September 21st 2013 Sunday September 22nd 2013
Continental breakfast X X X
Lunch X X
Coffee breaks X X
Access to all meetings X X
Banquet X
Closing meeting X
Brunch X
Cost $70* $80* $50*
Late Registration: Add $10* per person. After September 9th 2013

Saturday evening (Banquet only) – $50*

  • Available to spouses and local guests only
  • Late Registration: $60.00* per person. After September 9th, 2013

*Registering online adds $6.00 service fee

register mail register online online_room_reservation_web_image__0

Don’t forget to book your hotel reservations at:

Denver Renaissance Hotel
3801 Quebec Street
Denver, Colorado 80207
1-800-468-3571

Use group code: AVER

Hotel Accommodations.
The Denver Renaissance Hotel has offered us a special $105 per night rate for single, double, triple or quad. Valid from September 16-24, 2013  They have also provided considerable assistance in meeting room rentals, hospitality suite and food cost so we ask that you stay at the host hotel.