Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal One Year Later: “Out of Many, We Are One”

President Barack Obama signs the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 during a ceremony at the Interior Department in Washington, D.C., Dec. 22, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

 For we are not a nation that says, “don’t ask, don’t tell.” We are a nation that says, “Out of many, we are one.”  We are a nation that welcomes the service of every patriot.  We are a nation that believes that all men and women are created equal. Those are the ideals that generations have fought for.  Those are the ideals that we uphold today.  And now, it is my honor to sign this bill into law.

 -- President Barack Obama, December 22, 2010.

One year ago, President Obama signed into law the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Repeal Act, bringing to an end a discriminatory policy that forced patriotic Americans to serve under a cloud of anxiety and isolation and stood in stark contrast to our shared values of unity and equality.

One year later, gay and lesbian service members can serve the country they love without hiding who they love – and both our military and country are stronger for it. 

To commemorate the one year anniversary of President Obama signing the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Repeal Act, we asked a few former service members to reflect on the long journey toward repeal and what it was like to watch President Obama sign the Repeal Act into law:

Zoe Dunning

Until her retirement in 2007, Retired Navy Commander Zoe Dunning was one of the only openly gay service members in the country, having successfully fought an attempted discharge in 1993.  For many of those years, she served on the board of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network as an advocate for the repeal of DADT. 

Watch Retired Navy Commander Zoe Dunning's story here.

Building Welcoming Communities for All

Achieving full economic recovery and maintaining America’s competitive edge globally now and into the future will require communities to fully embrace their strongest resource –their people.   This is why communities around the country are taking a new approach to integrating newly arrived immigrants, refugees, and other newcomers into their community and creating more welcoming environments for all community members.

Through the New Americans Citizenship and Integration Initiative, officials from throughout the Administration have met with hundreds of leaders in communities across the nation to learn about successful models for integrating immigrants civically, economically, and linguistically.  Recently, White House staff from the Domestic Policy Council and Office of Public Engagement sat down to learn more about Welcoming America, a national organization working to create a welcoming atmosphere – community by community –which helps immigrants integrate into the social fabric of their adopted hometowns.  Welcoming America is a part of the “receiving communities movement,” which focuses on building 21^st century communities that attract and retain global investment. 

Thinking Outside of the Box to Engage Individuals in Community Service

I have always been inspired by leaders of our great nation and thus I am honored to be a White House Champion of Change. Upon reflecting about what service means to me for this event, I began to realize that service has struck my life in a multitude of ways. Community service is one of the most powerful tools we have because the resources one can provide their fellow human are infinite.

The ways in which we participate in community service must transcend the traditional forms of how we serve others. Soup kitchens and food banks are incredibly important to providing emergency services to people in need and could not operate without the support of volunteers. However, we also must highlight other forms of service that play an integral role in overcoming the reasons people resort to emergency resources. Mentoring or speaking to at-risk youth, providing IT support to non-profits, and educating ourselves about why challenges like food insecurity and social injustice exist are examples of uncomplicated approaches that support our communities. Encouraging a proactive, outside the box approach to service is critical to aiding communities in need, and in turn, combating many of the challenges our nation faces today.

My own story of service began in January 2007, when I traveled with a group of 11 people from St. Michael’s College to New Orleans to assist in the post-Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. At the onset of the trip, I was excited for the opportunity to travel to a new part of the country to do community service, but completely unaware of the impact this weeklong service trip would have on my life. During the week I served in New Orleans, I worked alongside others to clean the homes of two elderly people who had relocated after the storm. I was left with a daunting visual of the challenges our nation faces, but also met with a new found energy and interest in service.