Fighting for a good cause
Thursday, November 1st, 2012
An interview with Allyson Robinson, new executive director of OutServe-SLDN
BY AUTUMN SANDEEN
http://lgbtweekly.com/2012/11/01/fighting-for-a-good-cause/ (http://lgbtweekly.com/2012/11/01/fighting-for-a-good-cause/)
In the recent OutServe-SLDN video (See the video at LGBTweekly.com) you identified the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and open service for transgender servicemembers as two issues where LGBT servicemembers are being left behind. Will they be the two primary issues for OutServe-SLDN going forward?
Allyson Robinson: Thanks for asking that. That's what really brought me into this work; what made me first want to do this job. As I watched the national conversation and the movement conversation since repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, I started to sense this feeling that we were done; that we could move on from focusing on these issues and place our focus elsewhere. In fact, I've heard people express those things explicitly to me over the past couple of years.
But, it was very clear to me that we were not done – that we really had just started. The repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell represented just the beginning of the fight for full equality for LGBT servicemembers.
That dissonance between what I was seeing and what I knew to be true touched one of my most deeply held values. That is, we don't leave anyone behind. That's who we are as servicemembers and who we are as veterans.