WASHINGTON -- A veteran advocacy organization that pioneered in pushing to repeal the military's ban on the service of openly gay soldiers is joining forces with a newer cadre of activists that began as an underground network for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender troops.
The boards of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (or SLDN), founded in 1993 to combat the "don't ask, don't tell" policy launched that year, and OutServe, an association of gay and lesbian service members who connected anonymously on Facebook, voted over the weekend to combine. The merger will become final in October when the two groups meet in Orlando; the new organization will be called OutServe-SLDN. Read more »
