ATLANTA, GA – American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER) joins Servicemembers United Executive Director and AVER Life Member Alexander Nicholson in applauding today’s order issued by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifting its own stay of a lower court’s injunction barring enforcement of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law. This move once again renders “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” unenforceable by the Pentagon.  Nicholson was the sole veteran plaintiff on the case spearheaded by the Log Cabin Republicans, an LGBT political organization.

“We are pleased with the Ninth Circuit’s decision”, said Danny Ingram, National President of AVER, America’s only nationwide LGBT Veterans Service Organization. “AVER’s members, which include veterans who have honorably served their country in all branches of the military from World War II to Afghanistan, have been working on the removal of this discriminatory policy for over 20 years, even before DADT.  The first decision in this case, in October of last year by Judge Virginia A. Phillips helped to spur Congress to authorize the repeal of DADT in December. Clearly momentum for the final end of this policy continues to grow, and we look for President Obama to complete the process and certify the repeal as soon as possible, certainly within the next few weeks”.

Contact:

Denny Meyer,
AVER Public Affairs,
718.849.5665

Danny Ingram,
AVER President,
president@aver.us