Margarethe
Cammermeyer |
AVER, Atlanta,
GA (MAR 16,
2016) – Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer,
the highest ranking active officer to challenge
the US military’s ban on LGBT service members,
will be presented the 2016 Leonard Matlovich
Medal for Distinguished Service by American
Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER), the nation’s
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Veterans
Service Organization. The Medal will be
presented to Dr. Cammermeyer at AVER’s 25th
anniversary national convention to be held April
21-24, 2016, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Cammermeyer, a Vietnam Veteran, was discharged
from the US Army in 1992 following her
disclosure during a 1989 security clearance
interview that she is a lesbian. Her discharge
was overturned subsequent to a civil suit and
Colonel Cammermeyer became one of the first
openly serving LGBT military officers until her
retirement in 1997. The ban was repealed in
2010.
The Matlovich Medal is the highest honor awarded
by AVER and is named for USAF TechSgt Leonard
Matlovich who was the first gay service member
to purposely out himself to the military to
fight the ban on LGBT service members, and
became one of the best known LGBT activists in
America in the 1970s. Past recipients of the
Matlovich Medal include President Barack Obama,
Admiral Mike Mullen, and gay activist Dr. Frank
Kameny, a World War II veteran and founder of
the modern LGBT civil rights movement.
For more information on the 2016 AVER convention please visit the website located at AVER National Convention 2016.
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