Here, and because I wouldn't change a word even if I could, a fine birthday presentation about one of our most renowned LGBT activists. Done by, Michael Bedwell, of course. ... and since her timeline says she is, as always busy, and currently in Belgrade she can't complain about the baby pics for a while! Please share with young activist friends who need to know our history.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO FELLOW HOOSIER SURVIVOR TANYA DOMI! Just a few snapshots from the passionate life of this great lesbian veteran & great veteran lesbian activist. For those unaware, during her 15 years of service in the US Army, she was a paratrooper, drill instructor, and company commander of 140 MPS, receiving a Meritorious Service Medal, two Army Commendation Medals, a Joint Service Achievement Medal, and three Army Achievement Medals, among others. With great courage and perseverance, she also she survived being investigated as a lesbian twice. The first involved an 18-month lesbian witch hunt in which she was repeatedly interrogated, followed by Army CID agents, and her mail opened. They tried to entrap her with drugs and, as they always do, offered to go easy on her if she’d just name others. The second was the result of her reporting a male fellow officer for improperly sexually propositioning her. He retaliated by calling her a lesbian; she was investigated; he was promoted. She finally chose not to reenlist, leaving as a Captain. In 1993, as legislative director for the NGLTF and head of their Military Freedom Project, she testified before the House Armed Services Committee in support of President Clinton’s effort to lift the decade’s old military ban on gays, helped lead a cross-country educational bus tour of gay veterans called the Tour of Duty, and protested the ban’s codification. Her advocacy against the ban continued through its legislative repeal in 2010, and she was one of those invited to its signing by President Obama.
She worked with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s office when he introduced the Employment Non-Discrimination Act [ENDA] in 1994, and its hearings were disrupted by thug “ministers” invited by loathsome Indiana Senator Dan Coats yelling “They are not equal!,” and physically intimidating pro-ENDA witnesses. She was also a defense policy analyst for late Indiana Congressman Frank McCloskey, and, internationally, was involved for more than a decade on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, gender issues, sex trafficking, human rights, and media freedom, from Albania to the Republic of Serbia. While working in Bosnia-Herzegovina helping implement the Dayton Peace Accords, she was the chairperson for the Media Experts Commission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe [OSCE], the world’s largest intergovernmental regional security organization. She is currently an Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and Chair of the Board of Directors of GetEQUAL.
Photo permissions: [Some photos courtesy of Clinton Fein. © 1993-2011. Innoventions, Inc. All rights reserved. © 1993 Randy Shilts. © 1994 Estate of Randy Shilts. All rights reserved. Published by arrangement with St. Martin's Press.]