Subject: [big campaign] RELEASE: Veterans and Military Families Call on Senate to Act on DADT Repeal
From: Aniello Alioto <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:13:16 -0500
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Beating that drum!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Todd Stenhouse, Courage Campaign <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 12:48 PM
Subject: RELEASE: Veterans and Military Families Call on Senate to Act on
DADT Repeal
To: Aniello Alioto <[email-masked]>

 [image: Courage
Campaign]<http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/m/4b660f80/1ba66777/ef9ecba/40ba1c9b/2341424458/VEsH/>

*PRESS RELEASE*

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 18, 2010*

Contact:  Todd Stenhouse, Courage Campaign, 916-397-1131,
[email-masked]

              Eric Schmeltzer, VoteVets.org, 646-290-8586, [email-masked]

              Sara Schaumburg, Office of Rep. Patrick Murphy, 202-225-4276,
[email-masked]

*VETERANS AND MILITARY FAMILIES TO US SENATE:  REPEAL "DON'T ASK DON'T TELL"
*

*Thousands of Veterans and Military Families Sign Petitions, saying "We're
all in this together"*

Washington:  As Congress awaits formal release of the much anticipated
Pentagon Study about the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell Policy," thousands
of veterans and military families are speaking up for repeal.

More than 10,000 veterans and military families have already signed the
petition organized by Iraq War veteran and Congressman Patrick Murphy, the
national progressive advocacy group Courage Campaign, and VoteVets.org---a
leading political advocacy group for veterans of the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.

"The politicians who voted against repealing DADT and funding our military
in October have said they want to hear from our troops," said Courage
Campaign Chairman and Founder Rick Jacobs.  "We're going to make sure they
do.  Veterans and military families know that supporting our troops during a
time of war starts with repealing failed policies that undermine the trust
on which combat units depend, deprive those same units of mission critical
specialists, and contradict the values that generations of Americans have
fought and died to defend."

To date, "Don't Ask Don't Tell" has led to the discharge of nearly 14,000
soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen, at a cost to U.S. taxpayers of more
than $500 million.   This includes hundreds of "mission critical"
specialists for which the military has faced shortages in recent
years--including pilots, combat engineers, and arab linguists.   More than
66,000 LGBT Americans are reported to be serving in the military today, or
2.2% of the total force.  As of 2007, twenty two countries that allow open
service have deployed troops to serve alongside American forces in Iraq and
Afghanistan.

"This is an issue I've personally dealt with.  In the Marines, one of my
proudest moments was being one of the first to successfully defend a gay
Marine from being discharged from the service.  I've seen - first-hand - how
keeping this policy in place hurts the military," said Ashwin Madia, Iraq
War Veteran and Interim Chairman of VoteVets.org.  "When you strip all the
rhetoric away on this issue, it comes down to this:  We need to repeal Don't
Ask Don't Tell to make our military stronger."

Both inside and outside the military, repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell"
enjoys broad, bi-partisan support.  President Obama, a majority of the House
and Senate, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs Mike Mullen, and more than 78% of Americans also support repeal.
Media reports have also indicated that the soon to be released Pentagon
study will show 70% of the military and military families do not object to
repeal.

Among those who have signed the Murphy/Courage Campaign/Vote Vets petition
are hundreds of veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, thousands more
who served in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War, Grenada, Panama, the first
Gulf War and Bosnia, and thousands of military family members.

"With the recent Defense Department report confirming what we've been saying
for years, it's time for both parties to do the right thing and repeal this
discriminatory policy that harms national security and wastes taxpayer
dollars," Congressman Patrick Murphy said.  "The thousands of veterans and
military families who have signed these petitions know what it means to
support our troops, and I hope Senate Republicans will join them in
supporting repeal."

All told, the Courage Campaign and Vote Vets have accumulated more than
600,000 signatures for repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell."  Congressman
Murphy, a former West Point Professor who successfully led the effort to
pass repeal in the House, has pledged to deliver those signatures to Senate
Leadership prior to release of the Pentagon study on December 1.

###

*VoteVets.org<http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/m/4b660f80/1ba66777/ef9ecba/40ba1c9a/2341424458/VEsE/>is
a pro-military organization of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans,
dedicated
to the destruction of terror networks around the world, with force when
necessary.  It primarily focuses on education and advocacy on issues of
importance to the troops and veterans, and holding politicians accountable
for their actions on these issues.*

*The Courage Campaign is a multi-issue online organizing network that
empowers more than 700,000 grassroots and netroots supporters to push for
progressive change and full equality in California and across the country.
Courage holds politicians accountable, works for reform, and trains and
organizes activists to change their communities.*

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