Many years ago I was tasked with organizing PrideFest’s Opening Ceremony. It was easy enough to put together a typical program of speeches and an awards ceremony to present the PrideFest Medal. Of course, it would open with the singing of the National Anthem. But there was a hitch. Traditionally, when the National Anthem is sung, the audience faces the American flag. With the ceremony on PrideFest’s Miller Lite Main Stage, there was no American flag in view. The simple solution would be a flag on stage. A better one would be an LGBT color guard. I thought of the LGBT veterans’ organization, Vets Do Ask Do Tell (after President Obama repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in January of 2011, its name was changed to Veterans for Diversity, Inc.). Founded by Ellen Kozel, a 17-year veteran of both the Army and Navy, the group’s mission is to provide access to VA resources for gay veterans. It seemed logical to engage our LGBT military veterans to recognize their service as well as promote their work.
They didn’t have a color guard but were willing to create one…if they could find vets to participate. It was 2008. With Don’t Ask Don’t Tell still in place, some feared they would lose benefits if they came out publically. But, willing personnel were assembled and they bought flags by pooling their own money.
Then, at PrideFest’s Opening Ceremony, the first LGBT veterans’ color guard marched out. Representing the various armed services, they presented our national and state flags as well as the rainbow flag. Some wore battle dress camouflage, others dress uniforms. Most were combat veterans. I asked one about the Purple Heart ribbon she wore. She was wounded in Iraq when her truck hit an improvised explosive device. Kozel herself was there in a wheelchair. Following that first appearance, a man approached Kozel. He gave her a locket containing ashes of his fallen brother, saying the vets deserved to have it more than he did. Since then the locket is always carried by a Color Guard member. The unit is now an annual participant at the PrideFest Opening Ceremony and provides its services at other LGBT events.
The repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is helping end homophobia in the U.S. military. We now hear of fallen LGBT soldiers. In our nation’s recent conflicts, it’s estimated hundreds of gay and lesbian service members have died in combat. Killed in February 2011, U.S. Army Corporal Andrew Charles Wilfahrt is considered the first gay soldier to fall in battle after the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. The first out lesbian to be killed is Air Force Major Adrianna Vorderbruggen, who fell in Afghanistan just six months ago. One can easily find stories of LGBT casualties of our earlier wars. But, while casket flags were ceremoniously presented to widows or family, these men and women died without acknowledgement of their true selves.
Traditionally, a Gold Star flag is flown in the window of a household of a military service member killed in action. Perhaps this year we should all display one crossed with a rainbow flag in memorial to ours.
