There are 65,000 GLBT American service members currently serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world, and the government discharges two service members every day for being gay, the executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network said at the nonprofit legal organization’s 14th annual dinner in Washington, D.C., on May 13.

The vast majority of gays and lesbians continue to serve under the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy “because the commanders don’t care, or the commanders do care and value our service,” Executive Director C. Dixon Osburn said at the dinner, which preceded two days of lobbying Congress to support the Military Readiness Enhancement Act (HR 1059). The bill seeks to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and allow gays, lesbians and bisexuals to serve openly in the military. It has gained 115 co-sponsors in the first year after being introduced.

SLDN gave one of the Republican co-sponsors, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the Randy Shilts Visibility Award at the dinner. When she announced that she was co-sponsoring the bill, Ros-Lehtinen told the Miami Herald: “We tried the policy. I don’t think it works. And we have spent a lot of money supporting it. We investigate people, bring them up on charges; basically wreck their lives. People who signed up to serve our country, we need to be thanking them.”

In a videotaped acceptance speech, Ros-Lehtinen said, “I am proud to support and advance the interests of the lesbian and gay community … to protect the civil rights that are guaranteed to all Americans by our nation’s Constitution.”

Sexual orientation does not affect performance in combat and should not be a factor in serving the country, she added.

Over the past year, SLDN has saved the careers of more than three dozen service members, including six who have served for more than 19 years and would have lost their pensions for being kicked out because they are gay.

“We believe there is a real opportunity to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ over the next three to five years,” Osburn said. Public opinion “is solidly behind us,” and even Republicans are split on the issue, with 46 percent supporting and opposing letting gays, lesbians and bisexuals serve openly in the military.

SLDN and their dozen plaintiffs will appeal the recent court decision throwing out their legal challenge to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

“I believe that Justice Kennedy meant what he wrote [in the Lawrence v. Texas decision striking down sodomy laws], that the government cannot demean our existence or control our destiny by making private sexual conduct a crime,” Osburn said. “‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ fails that standard.”

Brian Fricke, a former Marine sergeant who served in Iraq, spoke of how he came to terms with his sexual orientation and discovered a network of gays and lesbians within the military. He said he found great acceptance among his peers who knew he was gay. “The only ones who think it’s a big deal are those here in Washington,” he added.

Still, he said he had to deny who he was and hide the facts. “I couldn’t share an important part of my life that everyone else was free to talk about,” he said. “I became one of the many LGBT service members who decided on dignity and love.” After five year in the Marines, Fricke made the decision not to re-enlist.

Retired General Claudia J. Kennedy, the first woman to achieve three stars, said values are at the core of the military. “I believe that, as an institution, our military needs to live up to the values we demand of those serving,” she said. “Military leaders need to respect all service members.”

The former deputy director of military intelligence recounted how one of the Army’s best Chinese linguists asked to be discharged because he is gay. “It was a terrible loss … and our intelligence operations lost some degree of readiness,” she said. “We are wasting our most precious asset: our people.

“When we say, ‘You are good enough to serve Iraq, but not be openly gay,’ we break our trust with all of our service members,” Kennedy said. “It is time to acknowledge that our military is as diverse as the country it protects.”