Reprinted with permission from HRCF. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Human Rights Campaign Fund 1012 14th Street, N.W. Suite 607 Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 628-4160 July 26, 1993 Dear Campaign Fund Member: This is not a fundraising appeal. In the wake of President Clinton's decision on the issue of discrimination in the military, I want to be sure you understand our response and our plan for action in the coming months. As I write to you, the situation on Capitol Hill is very fluid, but we know that the challenges facing our community in Washington and throughout the country are growing and require a clear and committed response. President Clinton's decision to require homosexuals serving in the U.S. military to hide is a shattering disappointment for millions of us who believed the President when he called for change last November. Instead of ending discrimination in the military, the President endorsed a detailed diagram of discrimination that keeps people in the darkest corners of the closet. THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE Under the Clinton plan, lesbian and gay military personnel who say they are homosexual are presumed to engage in homosexual conduct, and such conduct remains "incompatible with military service." To avoid discharge they would have to prove that they do not and will not engage in sexual activity. In essence, the policy condemns a lesbian or gay service member to a life without love or honesty and is, therefore, unjust and immoral. To protest this continued discrimination, I participated in a community civil disobedience demonstration on July 20th and was arrested along with several veterans and other activists in front of the White House. Meanwhile, our entire staff is fighting every attempt in Congress to codify either the current ban or the President's proposal. We will continue to use every resource at our disposal to educate the public concerning the injustice of these restrictions. The President's defenders tell us he wanted to lift the ban entirely, but political realities stood in the way. When haven't political realities blocked the eradication of discrimination against minorities and women in this country? Our responsibility is to change political reality, rather than use it as an excuse to avoid the challenge of change. The Campaign Fund believes that America, the President, and the gay, lesbian and bisexual community would have been better served if the President had lifted the ban completely, even if Congress then chose to overturn that decision. We repeatedly advised the President and his staff to do just that. While this has been a setback, we have many reasons to hope and go forward. Our mission -- to secure the safety, health and civil rights of gay and lesbian Americans -- has been propelled forward by the raging debate over the military service issue. During the past six months, our community has seized the moral high ground in our ongoing struggle for civil rights. With your help, we have altered the debate about the value of gay and lesbian Americans forever. You should be very proud to be among a small group of people that has shattered stereotypes and advanced the cause of our community to new heights in the public arena. WINNING THE DEBATE Long before the 1992 election, the Campaign Fund, in coalition with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the National Organization for Women, The Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Veterans of America, People for the American Way, the ACLU and other groups had gained enough support so that all the potential Democratic presidential candidates pledged to end the military ban. Millions of gay and lesbian voters responded to Bill Clinton when he promised to end discrimination in the military. We worked very hard during the transition period to see that the ban was lifted as quickly as possible. Shortly after the Inauguration, right wing forces on Capitol Hill sought to write the ban on lesbian and gay service personnel into law. Right wing organizers saw an opportunity to generate funds and activated a storm of protest which the media parlayed into a political tornado. With your help the Campaign Fund reacted immediately, bringing veterans into Washington for lobbying visits and meetings with the media. We used our Speak-Out system to send tens of thousands of Ietters into the halls of Congress. And we activated thousands of our members all over the country through phone banks, encouraging them to call the Capitol. That work paid off. On February 4, 1993 we were able to defeat the attempt by Senator Dole (R-KS) to codify the ban into law. During the past six months, with your support, the Campaign Fund waged an intensive lobbying effort (including the engagement of one of Washington's finest lobbying firms): * We worked with veterans and other organizations to coordinate our lobbying, grassroots and media programs. * We hired Ltjg. Tracy Thorne, who has lost his naval career as a result of his courageous honesty, to speak with the press and to lobby with us on Capitol Hill. * Our Speak-Out participants sent more mail -- more than 500,000 letters -- to Congress than at any time in our community's history. We orchestrated scores of events nationwide as part of "Operation Lift the Ban," including public forums, demonstrations and media events. We mailed over 500,000 letters to supporters to encourage their involvement, supplementing the letters generated by the successful "Letters From The Home Front" program. The Campaign Fund has spent over $1,000,000 on this effort, including full-page ads in The Washington Post, USA Today and other publications. I've enclosed copies of the ads. Our efforts produced tangible results, including growing support in the national media for an end to discrimination in the military. New allies, such as retired Maj. General Vance Coleman, conservative columnist Ken Adelman, former Senator Barry Goldwater and Medal of Honor winner Senator Bob Kerrey, came forward to defend our rights. Long-time friends, such as Coretta Scott King, Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder and Senators Barbara Boxer and Ted Kennedy, repeatedly spoke out publicly for our cause. In the battle, we won all the substantive arguments. We failed, however, to win the political battle. Members of Congress heard from far more people opposed to the policy change than from those on our side. They had also become leery of a President who seemed all too likely to compromise and leave them stranded. By all accounts, we won the debate, but lost the vote. Most of the Members of Congress I have lobbied on this issue tell me they know that in time the military's discriminatory policy will end, but they cite politics in their district and the lack of public support as the reason they cannot now support lifting the ban. We need to construct a plan of action that changes these political realities in our favor. THE CAMPAIGN FUND'S PLAN OF ACTION There has never been a more critical time for our community to take bold action to secure equality for gay and lesbian Americans. We must build on our strengths, discarding strategies that have failed or are outdated. We must develop innovative and effective programs to challenge public opinion and the political environment. Although we disagree with the Administration's proposal on the military issue, we still share the common goals of ending discrimination and waging an aggressive battle on AIDS, women's health and other critical issues. We are prepared to work together when our interests coincide. In the coming weeks members of our board and staff will assess the fall-out from the military issue and finely tune a plan that profits from this experience, empowers the community and makes substantial progress in the following areas: * Enactment of a Federal Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights Bill * Passage of Enhanced Funding For AIDS and Women's Health Research * Defeat of Congressional Repeal of D.C. Domestic Partnership and Sodomy Reform Bills *Ending Discrimination by the U.S. Military Against Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Americans This Action Plan will focus, first and foremost, on the fundamental political challenge of changing the way Americans see and react to lesbians, gay men and bisexuals. The Action Plan assumes that this "challenge of change" is the responsibility of a mature gay and lesbian community that has learned the hard lesson of the last six months: "we don't get what we deserve, but only what we are able to work for and earn." We cannot rely on politicians to "take care" of us. We have to take care of ourselves! The Action Plan will meet the challenge of change by incorporating the following elements: + SURVEY RESEARCH AND MESSAGE DEVELOPMENT. We will find out how to persuade Americans to support equality for lesbians and gay men. We will move beyond preaching to and convincing each other and confront the serious blocks that prevent our message of fairness from getting through to the public. + PUBLIC PERSUASION. We will be prepared to use substantial resources at critical times in these debates for advertising and broadcasting of our message. + COALITION BUILDING. The Campaign Fund will actively support and encourage alliances at three critical levels: first, within the gay, lesbian and bisexual community, we recognize the need to strengthen levels of trust and direct communications so that our separate, limited resources can be combined to leverage substantial results; second, within the larger civil rights and feminist communities, we find that our cause for equality and our principles of fairness are shared by many others -- including the NAACP, NOW and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights -- and that strength lies in unity; and third, between the national organizations and local, grassroots organizations, we will endeavor to foster a mutually interdependent and supportive relationship so that we can combine our strengths and eliminate our weaknesses. + SEEK AND PUBLICIZE ENDORSEMENTS FROM NON-GAY LEADERS. We have a phenomenal endorsement campaign that already has the support of over 400 prominent non-gay leaders in the fields of politics, sports, religion, entertainment, business and labor which we will publicize and continue to increase. + GRASSROOTS EMPOWERMENT. We will strengthen our successful Speak- Out program asking our community to expand the effort in areas where legislators don't often hear from gay and lesbian constituents. We will create a new program of "rapid-response teams" in every congressional district in the nation, the members of which will take the responsibility of lobbying their Members of Congress. We will need your help to make this work. + EXPAND OUR LOBBYING AND POLITICAL EFFORTS. We will secure further resources to build upon a strong and professional lobbying team expanding our in-house lobbyists from seven to ten and continuing to contract with outside lobbyists as necessary. We will make sure our enemies who supported the ban feel the heat during their next election and we will be certain that friends receive our support. + ENCOURAGE COMING OUT. All the polls show that attitudes on gay and lesbian issues improve as straight people personally meet openly gay and lesbian people. Coming-out shatters stereotypes. With the merger of National Coming Out Day with HRCF Foundation, the Campaign Fund is uniquely positioned to encourage this form of personal and highly political action. INTO THE MAINSTREAM The Campaign Fund Action Plan will move our issues forward. Because of your loyal support over the past several years our issues are no longer ''marginal'' or out of the mainstream. We've worked hard to gain this visibility. Despite our setbacks, now is the time to engage on a new path of education, empowerment and political action that will challenge attitudes and politics regarding gay and lesbian rights forever. Margaret Mead said "never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever does." We all have work to do. It is time to continue to be thoughtful and totally committed to the tasks before us. We are all resolved to win. We are not daunted by the challenge of changing political realities. Whether in Congress, the courts, the streets or in the White House, lesbian gay and bisexual Americans will move forward asking all for support, telling the truth and pursuing equality. We will ask: we will tell: and we will pursue until the job is done. Sincerely Tim McFeeley Executive Director +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tim Barnes National Institutes of Health Building 4, Room 428A Bethesda, Maryland 20892 USA (301) 402-0995