AB 1520, an initiative that would allow for state commissioned, privately funded veterans’ war memorials, sponsored by Assemblymember Chris Kehoe and supported by Equality California, passed the Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee on Jan. 13. AB 1520 will next be introduced on the Assembly floor. If passed, the bill will appoint an 11-member state commission to consider memorials for individual veterans groups, including GLBTs.

“What it will do is create a board that is going to designate or create a veterans’ memorial to LGBT veterans without any cost to the state,” said Bob Lehman, president of the San Diego chapter of American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER). “It will be the first one ever recognized by the state.”

This was the second time that AB 1520 was presented to the Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee. When it was first presented, last spring, AB 1520 only proposed a veterans’ memorial for GLBT service members. Proponents decided to withdraw the bill because there were not enough Democrats in attendance ensure that it would pass.

“The Republicans were there, but some of our own Democrats weren’t there because they preferred not to vote on the bill,” said Tom Swann, president of the California Gay Veterans Memorial Association and founder of AMVETS Post 66 in Palm Springs. “They didn’t want to vote no against it, but they were not comfortable voting yes.”

The primary argument made against the bill was that veterans’ memorials should honor all veterans and not designate separate memorials for specific categories. Opponents to AB 1520 have also cited the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in arguments against the bill.

AB 1520 was amended to include memorials for all veterans groups, including minority populations. The second hearing last week attracted former California Department of Veterans Affairs head Jay Vargas from the Bush administration in Washington, DC and other officials from the County Veterans Service office. According to Swann, no one spoke in opposition to the amended bill.

“There were people prepared to speak, but when they found out it was amended — that it’s going to be a commission of 11 people that will decide all future state memorials, not just the gay ones — then there was no opposition to the bill,” Swann said. “As gays and lesbians, all we’ve ever asked for is equality. We’ve never said ‘give us a special memorial,’ we’ve always said ‘give us a memorial that is equal to everybody else.’ This new version of the bill does exactly that.”

“We are very happy the veterans memorial bill got out of committee,” said Assemblymember Kehoe. “It was a very tough fight. We had to do a major compromise; the memorial commission now will not focus solely on a gay memorial but will be able to authorize a gay memorial. We think it is a victory for all veterans, and particularly allows for gay veterans to organize around a California-recognized memorial for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender veterans. We’re very happy about it, we had wonderful testimony, and we’re anxious to put the bill on the Assembly floor and pass it on to Senate.”

In August of last year, 32 Republican legislators lobbied for the removal of a walkway “paver” from the California Veterans Memorial at the state capitol that honors GLBT soldiers killed in combat, stating that it was inappropriate to grant special recognition to GLBT soldiers.

“Bob Lehman and I teamed up to put up a “paver” — basically a brick in the sidewalk — at the California Veterans memorial,” Swann said. “There are about five hundred of these bricks and we have just one for GLBTs. Thirty-two Republican legislators signed a letter that it should be removed. That’s very sad to me, but so far it’s still there. There is just not enough support to remove it.”

Lehman said he encountered opposition from several organizations while lobbying support for AB 1520 around the state, including the Fresno LGBT Democratic club who would not support the bill because they, too, felt that one group shouldn’t receive special recognition.

“I can understand that, being a veteran,” Lehman said. “But we do get special recognition every day because we’re the only group that is fired for our sexuality and discriminated [against], harassed and even murdered, so we’re already getting special recognition. Sometimes we have to do special things for groups like this so people know what’s going on, and so people don’t forget. People need to know that the LGBT community is being discriminated against, so even if we do conquer it and it is no longer an issue, people will remember … so it doesn’t happen again.”

Lehman, who is also the first openly gay veteran to be appointed to the San Diego County Veterans Advisory Board, said that the San Diego County Veterans Advisory Board has been supportive of AB 1520.

“I gave a little speech about it to tell them the progress and what we were doing,” he said. “When it came time to back it, some of them were a little shy about supporting it, which is very understandable, but they weren’t quite as shy as they probably would have been a year ago. So we’re making steps forward; sometimes it will be tiny steps, but at least it’s a move forward and we don’t just get the doors slammed in our faces anymore.”

AMVETS Post 66 will present Kehoe with their Legislator of the Year award. “Chris Kehoe deserves tremendous credit,” Swann said. “We have a democracy; she had a great idea, and it’s still a great idea. I like [the amended bill] better, because if it was a commission for just a gay memorial, it would be a two or three-year process and then it would stop. This new amended bill means that the commission may exist for the next fifty years, because it will be reviewing all future veterans’ memorials. So her legacy is assured because this bill will create a commission that will last for many, many years.”

The state will be responsible for upkeep of all memorials, which could be anything from statues to plaques in the ground; the memorials themselves will be funded privately. What is believed to the be the first GLBT veterans memorial in the nation was erected in 2001 in Cathedral City’s Desert Memorial Park cemetery. If AB 1520 is passed, the Cathedral City memorial could be rededicated as the state’s official GLBT veterans’ monument, or an entirely new one may be built.