SLDN holds annual dinner: "our work is not done": I have to report on it "from a distance"

This time, I have to blog from the back seat (like “The Lincoln Lawyer”).  As I was getting ready to go to the SLDN Annual Dinner at the National Building Museum Saturday Night (March 19), I was floored by a sudden attack of acute bronchitis, or something like an asthma. I went to bed, and feel well enough this morning to blog again after 12 hours or so under the covers, alone. But for this year’s report, I’ll have to depend on links to the accounts of others. I hope SLDN puts up a video of some of the key moments. If I find one, I’ll embed and add.  A DVD for purchase of the event would be nice.  The ticket was $350, but that is what I would have donated anyway. In any case, I became the Coen Brothers' "The Man Who Wasn't There."

I was in no condition for a state dinner, but I wonder if they had Cornish game hen, like one time a few years ago. Someone can comment on the menu.

The co-chairs were Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-CT). The keynote speaker was Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), and the Master of Ceremonies was Chris Matthews of MSNBC.

The Washington Blade has a story March 18 on the substance of Steny Hoyer’s address, link here.  The supporters of DADT repeal must monitor the transition carefully.

SLDN has a comprehensive page, “Next steps for “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” repeal”, link here.  You can follow comments from the Facebook page here.  

Twitter has some major points made by SLDN Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis at the dinner. “SLDN will continue to monitor implementation” of the repeal. “Work is not done until there is equality of benefits for all servicemembers.  Our work is not done. You spoke for those who could not speak for themselves.”  That last sentence is the most interesting to me.

Patrick Murphy, the "battle buddy", tweeted about his own warm reception.

Dorothy Hajdys-Clausen, mother of Allen Schindler, a sailor murdered in Japan in 1992 by homophobic sailors, appeared, and there is a news story in the Chicago Heights Patch here. 

All of this happens as the US military prepares in intervene in Libya.  Soon, people will be saying, “They went in.”

The official SLDN “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Documentary” was filmed in early 2008, and is presented here (8 minutes).

The next major event (a "makeup" for me) occurs April 3, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington
4444 Arlington Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22204 (at one time the Arlington Chess Club met there, when I often played). There will be a jazz festival. Joan Darrah and Mike Rankin will speak at the event.  I'll make this one.  

Also, the "Ladies of Lure" celebrated a "BARE Military Style" at Cobalt-DC on ladies' night (third Saturday). There is a brief account of the event on Myspace, here.