SpeakOut: The Intersection of LGBTQ Identity and Law

The Gulfport Public Library and LGBTQ Resource Center are kicking off their SpeakOut series with a lecture by C. Dixon Osburn, author and co-founder of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. His book, Mission Possible, recounts the individual, social and financial cost of a policy at the intersection of law and LGBTQ identity. Osburn will explore the history of the 1994 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Beyond “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” this interactive discussion will ask what the law, and rules like it dating to World War II, said about the relationship of LGBTQ Americans to civic life, citizenship, the constitution, and family. Osburn also will delve into the how struggles for racial and gender integration in the armed forces informed DADT and its ultimate repeal in 2010, as well as how the cultural narrative shifted, making DADT repeal possible. Further discussion will seek to answer what the DADT repeal tells us about struggles for inclusion, equality and humanity today. SpeakOut is a six-part series that examines the intersections between LGBTQ identity and aging, art, faith, law and literature, closing with a capstone session to tie together themes from the five topical discussions. This series is funded in part through a Florida Humanities Community Project Grant in partnership with the Gulfport Public Library.