A local, homegrown nonprofit and one high-profile national organization both recently became the first GLBT community organizations to host events aboard the USS Midway, the ship that has made San Diego its permanent home as a floating naval museum. Stepping Stone, a local nonprofit agency providing alcohol and drug recovery assistance primarily for gays and lesbians, and the national Servicemembers’ Legal Defense Network, which advocates for gays and lesbians in the military, both hosted fundraisers recently that enjoyed tremendous success aboard the Midway. The popularity of both events was considered to be largely due to the fact that openly gay and lesbian service members are actually banned from serving on board such a ship in the armed forces under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

Comedian Kathy Griffin, headlining Stepping Stone’s “Living Out Loud” fundraiser on Sunday, Sept. 12, addressed this irony in her monologue at the event: “I’ve got to admit,” said Griffin, “I’ve done stand up in a lot of places… [This is] a little unusual, an aircraft carrier. I have never seen so many gay people on an aircraft carrier… that admit it.”

Stepping Stone doubled its attendance over the previous year’s fund-raiser, with close to 600 people attending Living Out Loud for an evening that included a silent auction and dinner as well as Griffin’s comedy performance.

Geri Danzig, the director of development for Stepping Stone, said that the venue had a lot to do with the increased attendance this year. “It had a huge amount to do with the success. There was tremendous curiosity, along with a great deal of pride that a lot of people felt about being finally out in the open on a United States Navy ship. And also being the first gay organization to be there was very lucky for us.”

Danzig added that the event was not without its difficulties: All of the tables and furniture for the silent auction had to be lifted up to the deck by the freight elevators on the ship, and it took 14 minutes to bring each load up to the flight deck where the Stepping Stone event took place.

“There are a lot of challenges on the Midway – getting everything up there on this immense freight elevator,” Danzig said. “It’s very time consuming and our volunteers were just awesome, they worked from dawn to dusk for a couple of days just loading and unloading furniture.”

The work was worthwhile: Stepping Stone was able to gross close to $115,000 for the event – a final tally was not available at press time.

SLDN’s recent fund-raiser, “Momentumon the Midway”, was also a departure from its traditional fundraising events and one that also proved successful, with SLDN reporting close to $65,000 raised.

“It was an amazing event,” said Steve Ralls, communications director for SLDN. “I think the venue was a historic opportunity for SLDN to be on an aircraft carrier – which of course is very relevant to what we do – and we have heard nothing but positive feedback from those who were in attendance.”

Traditionally, SLDN’s major annual fundraiser has been a national dinner that takes place in Washington D.C. That event regularly attracts 600 people; this year’s Momentum on the Midway event drew more than 900. In addition to the impressive turnout at the event, the Momentum party introduced the organization to a new source of fundraising for SLDN.

“It’s a great way for us to reach younger people who do want to have a fun event to attend but also want to be able to help SLDN’s mission,” Ralls said. “Of course San Diego is an incredibly important community to us because of the large military population that’s there … not only from a fundraising perspective, but also for building awareness of SLDN and the work that we do.”

The SLDN Momentum on the Midway party was organized by an all-volunteer San Diego-based committee that, in addition to securing and staffing the venue, also brought in a number of national sponsors, including The Advocate, American Airlines, JP Morgan/Chase and Genre magazine. Volunteers also organized military theme parties at local bars for the nights leading up to the main event aboard the carrier.

“I have every anticipation that if the Midway will invite us back, we would be happy to be back next year and make this an annual fundraising event,” Ralls said.