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May 7, 2011
10th Anniversary Of The Gay Veterans Memorial
Today the 10th anniversary of the first (and still the only) gay veterans memorial in the U.S. was recognized in the Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City. I seem to recall being at the dedication 10 years ago, but that would have been in May 2001, and I wouldn't normally have been in the area in May. In any case, I was at a ceremony there many years ago and here's a photo scanned from a slide in September 2003, but I didn't record the date of the original photo.
The mother of Allen Schindler, a gay sailor who was beaten to death in 1992 by his fellow sailors. His body was so mutilated his mother was able to identify it only by the tattoo on one arm.
Brigadier Gen. Keith Kerr (Retired) who successfully lobbied Rep. Bono Mack to vote for repeal of DADT.
Danny Ingram, national president of American Veterans for Equal Rights.
The ceremony was capped by the reading of a letter from President Obama recognizing the occasion. No similar letter was received from George Bush ten years ago.
UPDATE: The Desert Sun article.
Filed under Coachella Valley,Gay Issues,Photography | permalink | May 7, 2011 at 04:20 PM
