Category Archives: Info

Frank Kameny’s Birthday

May 21 is the birthday of Dr. Franklin E. Kameny, one of the most prominent LGBTQ+ activists and organizers in American history. Dr. Kameny was a Jewish, US Army World War II veteran and Harvard PhD. 

Following the war Dr. Kameny worked as an astronomer for the US Army Map Service where he became a victim of Senator Joe McCarthy’s infamous persecution of LGBT Americans known as the Lavender Scare. This persecution was featured in the recent film “Fellow Travelers” starring Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey.     

In 1957 Kameny sued the US Civil Service Commission after he was fired from his job because of his sexual orientation.

On April 17, 1965, Dr. Kameny picketed the White House, one of the first public LGBTQ demonstrations in US history. In 1971 he became the first openly LGBTQ candidate for US Congress. He successfully advocated for the removal of homosexuality as a mental disease by the American Psychiatric Association. 

He searched for gay US service members to challenge the military’s anti-gay policy, and in 1975 encouraged USAF SSgt Leonard Matlovich to come out in order to challenge the ban.

Kameny helped found some of the nation’s premiere LGBT organizations, including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. He fought to change America’s image of LGBTQ people, coining the phrase “Gay is Good” in 1968.

In 2009 he stood beside President Barack Obama in the Oval Office as the president signed an executive order granting benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees. That same year, Dr. Kameny received a formal apology from the U.S. government for his firing. It was delivered by John Berry the openly gay director of the Office of Personnel Management.

Dr. Kameny lived to see the end of the ban on lesbian, gay, and bisexual people serving openly in the military, an effort for which he had fought for so many years. Frank Kameny died on October 11, 2011 (National Coming Out Day) and is buried in Washington’s Congressional Cemetery.

His home in Washington has been named a National Historic Landmark and a street in DC bears his name, “Frank Kameny Way.” Dr. Frank Kameny is a Life Member of American Veterans for Equal Rights and a recipient of AVER’s highest honor, the Leonard Matlovich Medal.

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:

AVER National Convention 2023

Save The Date!!
American Veterans for Equal Rights is pleased to announce the 2023 National Convention will be held Oct 14th-16th in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The Florida Gold Coast Chapter is hosting the convention at the Pride Center At Equality Park in the City of Wilton Manors.

Accommodations will be at the Sonesta Fort Lauderdale Beach, just steps away from the ocean. Special reservation prices will be honored 3 days before and after the convention so you can plan to stay and play!

Vendor applications are open!! Veteran organizations welcome! See contact information below.

AVER is our nation’s oldest LGBT Veteran Service Organization. We are a chapter-based 501c3 dedicated to Equality for LGBTQ Servicemembers, Veterans, and our families.

More information and registration information coming soon. We look forward to seeing you there!

Contact: Lee Lawson – Son_oflaw@yahoo.com

ALIVE

“ALIVE”
On 21 March 2003, 20 years ago today, United States military forces crossed the border from Kuwait into Iraq on the first day of the ground war of Operation Iraqi Freedom. This movement followed a night of “shock and awe” in which American and British air forces had attacked Iraqi military positions in advance of the invasion. US Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Eric Fidelis Alva was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, when the unit crossed from Kuwait into Iraq. Three hours into the ground war, the convoy halted its advance. SSgt Alva exited his vehicle and walked to the front hood to heat his MRE, something he had almost never done before. While returning to the side of the vehicle he triggered a mine which exploded beneath him. He had become the first injury of the war and was the war’s first Purple Heart recipient. In almost any previous war, that would have been the end of Eric’s story. The end of his life. But not in 2003.
What followed was a story of extensive trauma, horrible pain, endless surgeries, frustrating rehabilitation, and lonely moments where thoughts of death and despair were never far away. But Eric Alva persevered. He overcame obstacles and learned to live a new life missing his right leg. Something few of us can even imagine. He retired from the Marine Corps with 13 years of service and began life post-military, inspiring others with stories of pushing beyond physical challenges and overcoming obstacles. Learning to snow ski and scuba dive, and helping others to do the same. And that, too, may have been the end of his story. But it wasn’t. Eric’s work, and his challenges, were not finished.
Coming out as gay was not an easy decision for a Texan from a deeply Hispanic culture. It was a challenge, and there were many risks to being open about who he was, including the risk of rejection from the family who had been so supportive throughout his long ordeal of injury and recovery. But circumstances had placed Eric Alva in a unique position. The fight to repeal the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law, the military policy that denied LGBT people the right to serve in defense of our nation’s freedom, was looking for a champion, and Eric Alva fit the description. Once again, he crossed the line and took a dangerous step.
Eric Alva became one of the most compelling and inspirational champions of the effort to repeal DADT, speaking out as a gay Marine who had served proudly and sacrificed for his country. He served as the national spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign’s fight to repeal the ban, speaking across the country and appearing on numerous television shows including Oprah Winfrey, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper 360, and appearing in Newsweek, USA Today, as well as numerous other media across the country including the cover of The Advocate. He testified before the House Armed Service Subcommittee. And on December 22, 2010, he stood behind the right shoulder of President Barack Obama as the President signed the legislation to implement the repeal of DADT.
Today is Eric’s “Alive Day,” a day often commemorated by the few individuals who share the traumatic experience of almost dying. It is not an easy thing, when nightmares still disturb sleep, or thoughts about “what might have been” can creep in, invoking sadness and loss. As his husband I know how deeply challenging this day can be for him. There is not much I can do to take away painful memories, and nothing I can do to restore a lost limb. But like so many military spouses, I do what I can to be supportive of someone who is not only my love but my hero. I know I join many, many people who give thanks that Eric Alva survived that day 20 years ago and went on to inspire so many lives, touch so many hearts, and create so much change in the lives of a people struggling for our hard-earned piece of the American dream of justice and equality. I love you, SSgt Eric Alva. I am so grateful for the story of your life, an on-going and unfolding story which I am now so deeply honored and blessed to share. Thank you for your courage, commitment, and dedication. Your kind and faithful heart. Your tenderness and laughter. Thank you for being you. A Marine. A Hero. A creator of change.
Semper Fi.
Danny Ingram, National President Emeritus
American Veterans for Equal Rights

10th Anniversary of Freedom to Serve

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 15, 2021

RE:  10th Anniversary of Freedom to Serve

Contact:  AVER Public Affairs, 678.596.1311 publicaffairs@aver.us

San Antonio, TX “Military City USA” (SEP 15, 2021) – American Veterans for Equal Rights, the nation’s oldest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender veterans service organization, joins other progressive patriots from all walks of life in commemorating the 10th anniversary of the September 20, 2011, implementation of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the law that barred LGBT people from serving in the United States military. AVER celebrates this important civil rights milestone, and we honor the long and determined grassroots effort by service members and veterans, men and women, to overturn the nearly 100-year-old policies that denied the freedom to serve to LGBT Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen and Coastguardsmen. We acknowledge the diverse efforts, strategies, struggles and sacrifices by many individuals and organizations that led to the repeal of the discriminatory DADT law. Work remains. Until protections for LGBT service members are codified into law, the right to serve remains at the whim of politicians. Just as Donald Trump reversed the Obama-era policy that allowed transgender volunteers the right to serve, future commanders-in-chief could change policy at will. The reinstatement of transgender service implemented by President Biden must be protected by law. AVER envisions a military that fully reflects the diversity of the American people, where every individual who serves is free to reach their full potential unburdened by policies that discriminate against any service member for any reason. The defenders of our nation’s liberty must be, first and foremost, the representatives of the freedom they serve to defend.