Supporting our GLBT troops

The holidays can be an especially trying time for our men and women in uniform, and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” makes this time of year even more difficult for our LGBT service members. The holiday season does not end the often-long separations between loved ones and family, and it’s no surprise that calls for assistance to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network tend to increase as the year draws to a close.

This holiday, all of us at SLDN want all of those serving our country to know:  You are not alone.  

Whether you are serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait or Germany, our thoughts are with you. Whether you are on duty here at home, or serving half a world away, we are grateful for your service. During the holidays, and every day, all of us at SLDN salute you, honor you and fight alongside you. And even though we cannot be with you in person, we are with you in spirit.

The SLDN staff, board and military advisory council also send a heartfelt thank you to the thousands of supporters and donors who make our work possible. Because of your generosity, the men and women we serve never serve alone.

This holiday, SLDN remembers the kindness of our allies and the courage of our troops. Because of you, the New Year is filled with new possibilities.

Happy Holidays. 

Aubrey Sarvis
Executive Director, SLDN
Washington, D.C.

Mourning Thomas Morgan

The Black AIDS Institute mourns the death of one of black America’s shining stars this holiday. Thomas Morgan, former New York Times editor and trailblazing ex-president of the National Association of Black Journalists, died Dec. 24 of an AIDS-related heart attack, according to NABJ and friends. He was 52.

Morgan lived for 20 years as an openly HIV-positive gay man and worked in some of America’s largest, most influential newsrooms. He was a reporter and editor at the Times, The Washington Post and the Miami Herald. From 1989 to 1991, he presided over one of NABJ’s most explosive periods of growth and organization.

“He had the ability to walk into a room divided and help those who held opposing viewpoints find common ground,” said NABJ President Barbara Ciara in a statement announcing Morgan’s death. “His loss is not only a personal one for me, but a great loss for NABJ. As recent as last week he was making his voice heard as we debated the recent FCC ruling affecting minority media ownership. I will miss his counsel, his dedication to NABJ, and most of all his friendship.”

In the years following his presidency, Morgan was a tireless advocate on behalf of fellow gay and HIV-positive journalists of color, both within NABJ and in the news industry at-large. And he always stepped forward to help all journalists learn to cover the HIV/AIDS epidemic smartly and compassionately.

“I want members to know,” he told the NABJ Journal in 1995, “that AIDS is a disease no different than things like breast cancer or prostate cancer. It is simply a disease. We are all mortal, and we will all die of something.”

Today, NABJ boasts an active LGBT Task Force that has a significant presence at national conventions and has repeatedly tackled the AIDS epidemic in its programming—an achievement that would have been impossible without Morgan’s leadership.

“When we talk about standing on the shoulders of those who came before us, we mean Tom,” wrote Marcus Mabry, the task force’s founding co-chair, in marking Morgan’s death Dec. 24. “In a very real literal way, we are here thanks to him.”

Phill Wilson
Executive Director, Black AIDS Institute
Los Angeles