tsad2011-part2.mov

Part 2 "To Support and Defend" is a documentary film produced in 1993 by a collective of mostly GLBT people and many straight supporters in the entertainment and news community, as a response to the ugly "Gay Agenda" then being distributed by the religious right. While the "Gay Agenda" never named who was behind that film, we were proud to have a long credit roll of participants and donors. "To Support and Defend" evolved into a dignified response to the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings being held by Senator Sam Nunn, "debating" President Clinton's proposal to end the ban on gays and lesbians serving in the Military. It was no debate. Nunn had pointedly excluded any GLBT Service members or experts who could have provided testimony in favor of lifting the ban. The hearings were a charade, loaded with homophobic testimony. GLBT Servicemembers were cut out and silenced, so we gave them a voice. 1500 copies of the video were delivered, by hand, to every Member of Congress, throughout the Pentagon and in the White House, and screened on the giant video screens on the Mall at the massive GLBT March on Washington that spring. It aired on several PBS stations and at rallies and fundraisers. We lost the battle in 1993, and DADT was spawned. But today, 18 years later, we've won the war. It is finally "Mission Accomplished."