At a press conference today HRC and Servicemembers United launched Voices of Honor, a national tour formed to highlight the discriminatory nature of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
To kick off the tour, Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA), a former West Point professor and an Iraq war veteran who has taken over lead sponsorship of the repeal of DADT from Ellen Tauscher, spoke:
Our president, President Barack Obama, has stated that if Congress can get a bill to his desk repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, he will sign it into law. It is now our job, and my job specifically, to quarterback this through the Congress of the United States to do just that.
“Voices of Honor” features a diverse group of gay, lesbian, and straight veterans who have served under the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The tour includes, among others, former Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, the first U.S. soldier wounded in the Iraq war, and Jarrod Chlapowski, a former U.S. Army Korean linguist who opted to not re-enlist because of DADT and is currently a public policy advocate at the Human Rights Campaign.
Stops on the tour include Philadelphia, Trenton, Virginia Beach, Phoenix, Kansas City, Orlando, Tampa, with additional cities and dates expected to be announced soon.
Video of Rep. Patrick Murphy’s speech and a segment by CNN on the “Voices of Honor” tour.
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