Two Veteran’s Day “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Events in NYC

Proud to Serve from Jo Ann Santangelo on Vimeo.

Today is Veteran’s Day, when we celebrate those who serve our country and who risk their lives to do it. Fittingly, there are several Veteran’s Day events happening today in New York tonight to commemorate the service of LGBT Americans and to discuss the current state of the policy that makes it legal to fire them for being LGBT.

The first is a showing of photographs by Jo Ann Santangelo, who recently returned from a national road trip during which she photographed and interviewed LGBT servicemen and women. Some of them have been discharged under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and others have avoided being fired for their sexual identity. In “Proud to Serve,” Santangelo talks to these brave men and women about how DADT has affected their lives in the military and out.

“Proud to Serve” exhibit opening and book release: November 11, at 5:30 at New York City’s The LGBT Center, Manhattan. This event is free.

The Center is also hosting a panel discussion called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – Where are We, and How Did We Get Here?” Panelists include Richard Socarides, former Clinton administration LGBT policy adviser, Knights Out and OutServe communications director Brenda S. Fulton, Washington Post editorial board member Jonathan Capehart, Center for American Progress Senior VP Winnie Stachelberg and Unfriendly Fire author Nathaniel Frank. The event is free but you need to register.

Happy Veteran’s Day, everyone. If there are any servicemen or women among our readership, thank you, for everything you do.

New York, NY

Chloe Angyal is a journalist and scholar of popular culture from Sydney, Australia. She joined the Feministing team in 2009. Her writing about politics and popular culture has been published in The Atlantic, The Guardian, New York magazine, Reuters, The LA Times and many other outlets in the US, Australia, UK, and France. She makes regular appearances on radio and television in the US and Australia. She has an AB in Sociology from Princeton University and a PhD in Arts and Media from the University of New South Wales. Her academic work focuses on Hollywood romantic comedies; her doctoral thesis was about how the genre depicts gender, sex, and power, and grew out of a series she wrote for Feministing, the Feministing Rom Com Review. Chloe is a Senior Facilitator at The OpEd Project and a Senior Advisor to The Harry Potter Alliance. You can read more of her writing at chloesangyal.com

Chloe Angyal is a journalist and scholar of popular culture from Sydney, Australia.

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