Servicemembers
Legal Defense Network (SLDN) and OutServe, the association of actively
serving LGBT service members, launched a new online campaign today
spotlighting the inequalities forced upon gay and lesbian service
members by the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and other
federal laws that prevent the military and Department of Veterans
Affairs from providing the same recognition, support and benefits to all
service members, veterans, and their families. The campaign, Stories From Home: Letters From Military Families to Congress,
will detail the first-hand experiences of service members and their
families who are harmed by federal marriage discrimination.
The first of two letters released
today comes from Army Lieutenant Colonel Victoria A. Hudson. Hudson
has served in the U.S. Army Reserve for more than 32 years, including
four years of enlisted service. She is a veteran of Operation Desert
Shield and Desert Storm, Operation Joint Endeavor (peace enforcement
mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina), two Operation Noble Eagle domestic tours
of duty following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., and one
tour in Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom. She is married to Monika
Poxon, and they live in California with their two daughters.
“To think that when I am sent to war that my wife is left out of any
support, might not be properly notified if I died, and would have to
fight for my final benefits makes no sense,” Hudson writes in her
letter. “I serve and protect the Constitution that declares all are
created equal, yet feel like my family is the unseen footnote, ‘except
if gay or lesbian.’”
The second letter of the campaign,
released today, comes from TSgt Erwynn Umali and Will Behrens, who were
joined in a civil union in the State of New Jersey in 2012 and have
four children. The two say they would have been joined in marriage, if
the State of New Jersey ensured the freedom to marry for all people.
“We strongly feel that we should be afforded the same recognition,
support, and benefits as all other military families. We equally support
and make sacrifices for the freedom and security of our country. We
hope you will hear this plea and take whatever action is necessary to
correct this injustice forced upon us – and so many others like us – by
laws which treat us differently,” the two write in their letter.
Among the concerns the couple expresses in their letter to Congress
are lack of health insurance for the entire family, causing undue
financial strain; inability for entire family to gain access to the base
where TSgt Umali serves for things like doctors' visits, grocery
shopping, and military family activities; equal access to housing; and
exclusion from survivor's benefits that Behrens would need to care for
the four children should something tragic happen to TSgt Umali.
The couple also shared in their letter the lack of respect that comes
with the day-to-day realities of being treated as a second-class family
by the federal government.
“Sometimes it’s the smaller, day-to-day indignities that are so hard
to bear. For example, Will and the kids recently threw a surprise
birthday party for Erwynn, but in order to do so, they had to find
someone on base to come to the gate and escort them – but only after
being forced to fill out paperwork. No other family would be forced to
do this,” they write in the letter.
SLDN filed landmark litigation in October 2011 challenging
DOMA and other federal statutes that prevent the military from
providing equal recognition and support to same-sex military spouses.
Hudson and her wife are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
“Stories like these underscore the inequalities forced upon gay and
lesbian military families by these unjust federal laws, and today’s
launch is yet another way for SLDN and OutServe to highlight the harm
done to these families, who want nothing more than to serve their
country and be treated like everyone else. We cannot have two classes of
families in the military,” said Army Veteran and SLDN Executive
Director Aubrey Sarvis.
Service members, veterans, and their families affected by these
discriminatory laws are invited to submit their own letters for
publication at www.sldn.org/storiesfromhome.