i went to the naval academy and became a marine officer and a pilot. this is dated 12 march, '74. my dearest love, it starts. god has given me you. [soft dramatic music] and it's allowed me to live honestly and in truth. my life is not a lie anymore, for i have you. and then in this box, i found something that says, in the event of my death, ship the briefcase unopened to-- and it has my address, and it's signed by him. he wanted to make sure that if he got killed in an accident that people wouldn't open the letters and figure out what was going on. protecting me. - well, the policy that banned gay men and women from serving openly in the military, "don't ask, don't tell"-- - "don't ask, don't tell." - "don't ask, don't tell." - "don't ask, don't tell." - well, you know it all started with a stolen memo. [dramatic music] - the entire policy was based on this premise that an openly gay member of the military ruins unit cohesion and morale. - and who would be in favor of keeping the policy like it is now, which is keeping your private life private? - gay people and gay expulsions have existed in the military since day one. ♪ - 14,000 people were removed from the military under that policy. - there were people asking and probing. - it was constant. you never knew when you were going to get discovered. - i could get kicked out for no other reason than who i was or who i loved. - if you think something's really bad, you've got to give witness. ♪ - those service members were being treated as though they were criminals. - they were getting found and literally assaulted. - the fatal beating of a gay sailor at a u.s. base in japan-- - it really didn't achieve its objectives. - we had democrats and republicans talking about how terrible gay people are. - it comes down to integrity. - we're going to fight this. we have died for our country. it's about equal rights. - you can negotiate the wording of a bill, but you can't negotiate freedom. - it isn't about tolerance. it's about pride and respect. - discrimination is still discrimination, no matter how you slice it. - today, focused on the transgender community for partisan gain. - and i saw what happened to us, and i kept thinking to myself, it's got to stop. ♪ [birds chirping] [water sloshing] - i'm an army brat. when i was brought up, i would run around the house saying, go, army. beat navy. so my going into naval academy was a really big deal. [soft dramatic music] i come from a family where service was really important to us. i mean, all the men in my family have served in the military. my dad was in the army in the beginning of world war ii. he always told me-- he said, look, tom, if you're really smart, you want to fly. and i said, well, that's a great idea. i think i'll do it. so i went down to the post office and took a civil service examination. and then i received my appointment to the naval academy from senator j. strom thurmond. [waves crashing] when i was in, i think, fifth or sixth grade, i found myself being attracted to boys. ♪ i thought there was nothing wrong with it. i mean, other than my father had told me it was a sin. but to me, it felt natural. and then when i got to the naval academy, i realized that being gay was going to be a real problem with trying to survive in america. and so i went, like, cold turkey. it was like a switch. i just turned it off. and then i met court. [gentle music] so i was at the bar. and i had seen court before in the officer's mess. and i looked at him a couple of times and i thought, wow, this guy's a real looker. i moved over next to him, like this, side to side. i reached down and put my hand in his back pocket. and so that was the beginning of everything. he was very, very bright. he was witty. he was charming. he was articulate. and he was just fun. and i fell in love with him. i would go flying at nighttime, and he would be the duty officer in his squadron. i had a squadron frequency, and i would call him on the radio and see how he was doing. sometimes, people would be in the ready room and say, who's that guy and how'd he get our frequency? we worked in different places. we had different circles of friends. and so when people would see us together, they would kind of scratch their head and say, what the hell are these guys doing together? [tense music] - coming out as gay in the 1960s and '70s and '80s was a harrowing, risky thing. before "don't ask, don't tell," investigations were being conducted by the cid, the criminal investigative division. and that's how those service members were being treated, as though they were criminals. the ones who had to endure that, they tended just to go quietly. if they could get an honorable discharge, that was the best they could hope for. - if you had a discharge paper that said homosexual discharge, this could mean loss of so many relationships and so many opportunities, economic livelihood. it was a very difficult thing. - you can talk about gays and lesbians serving. you can talk about them serving openly. they're different things. they had always been serving. [sounds of distant fighting] - all the way back to ancient greece, the sacred band of thebes was a military force composed of a couple hundred pairs of male lovers. and in the u.s. military itself, there were always gay people. baron friedrich von steuben was a continental army captain and was a respected expert on order and discipline in the military. and he wrote a training manual still referenced today. and what that means is that a gay person literally wrote the book on the very traits that gay people would later be suspected of threatening by their very presence in the military. - all societies structure themselves around the very notion that there are things within society that are dangerous, that are impure. - god says in the old and the new testament that it's an abomination. - society comes together more cohesively if they find a group that they can demonize, a scapegoat. - telling people the source of your problems is an other who's among you, is out to subvert everything you hold dear. - they have done and are doing enormous damage to young people. - as long as people think there is power to be gained by excluding another group, some of them are going to try it. [explosions] - it wasn't until world war i that sodomy was first mentioned in the military regulations. the idea was if you engaged in non-procreative sex, you were potentially a threat to the cohesion of the military and its tight-knit community of people who were expected to abide by the norms and mores of society. it wasn't until world war ii when the military really began to target homosexual identity. this coincided with a shift in the wider culture. you had newer understandings of gay people as a class of people who were beginning to build their lives around it, rather than just as an act that someone, anyone might do as a one-off. during world war ii, bureaucrats quickly had to screen through millions of young people. so you had a lot of shortcuts being taken. and so they relied often on stereotypes. if you're a gay person, you don't necessarily look any different from anyone else. - there was a social norm established for what a gay person was. and it was usually very effeminate, very high-pitched voice, certain interest in the arts, or something like that. - women were often accused of being lesbians because they wanted to work in a non-traditional field, being an engineer or being a pilot. anything that wasn't medical or administrative, they were looked askance at. - increasingly, these stereotypes came to be associated with who gay people were. whether or not you actually were gay, you might be rooted out of the military. during the first and second red scares, both in the military and in the government generally, there were purges. there were more gay people caught up in the firings than there were communists. the idea was that if you carried a secret, such as being gay, you were more prone to blackmail, and so you were a security risk, and you couldn't be allowed to serve in the military. now, of course, you only carried a secret because society and the military insisted that being gay was a shameful secret that you couldn't tell anyone. - you know, living in the closet in the military is much more difficult than living in closet civilian world because you're so close constantly with people. and you became paranoid. you had to hide letters. you couldn't have photographs. it was a really, really difficult way to live. it was like the sword of damocles hanging over your head. i was in okinawa. i got a telephone call from a good friend of mine. and he said, i hate to tell you this, but court's been arrested. [tense music] apparently, he brought an enlisted man home, and the enlisted man accused him of sexually assaulting him. i was dumbfounded. and i asked him up front. i said, just let me know if it's true. he said, i didn't. this guy got drunk. he threw up all over himself and everything. i just had to clean him up. i said, you know, court, you're in real deep trouble. the chase ink business premier card is made for people like sam, who make- everyday products, designed smarter. like a smart coffee grinder, that orders fresh beans for you. oh, genius! for more breakthroughs like that- i need a breakthrough card. like ours! with 2.5% cash back on purchases of $5,000 or more. plus unlimited 2% cash back on all other purchases. and with greater spending potential, sam can keep making smart ideas- a brilliant reality! the ink business premier card from chase for business. make more of what's yours. why choose between a longer life or quality of life? you deserve both. and with kisqali, a treatment for people with metastatic breast cancer, you can have both. kisqali is a pill that, when taken with an aromatase inhibitor is the only treatment of its kind shown to both help people live longer and improve or preserve quality of life. because you shouldn't have to sacrifice one for the other. kisqali can cause lung problems, or an abnormal heartbeat, which can lead to death. it can cause serious skin reactions, liver problems and low white blood cell counts that may result in severe infections. avoid grapefruit during treatment. tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including breathing problems, cough, chest pain, a change in your heartbeat, dizziness, yellowing of the skin or eyes, dark urine, tiredness, loss of appetite, abdomen pain, bleeding, bruising, fever, chills, or other symptoms of an infection, a severe or worsening rash, are or plan to become pregnant, or breastfeeding. live longer and live well. ask about kisqali, and long live you. ask about kisqali, [soft dramatic music] - they offered him a resignation in lieu of a court martial, and said, if you do resignation, we're going to give you an honorable discharge. i said, but i want you to fight it. he said, they're going to give me a general court martial. i could go to leavenworth. and i'm worried that if they find out about me, they're going to find out about you. i said, i'm not important. you need to worry about yourself. he said, i just can't tell my family. i can't tell my dad. he said, i just got to take this thing. so he did. and i never got to see him. he just-- they flew him out of there. he went to camp pendleton, where they took off all his rank insignia, everything that would designate him as an officer. then he gets this paper, and they give him a less than honorable discharge. he was really hurt, as you can imagine. and i was hurt. and i was disgusted that the marine corps would do this to him, so i put in my resignation. - it doesn't make sense right now when they're trying to bring a lot of people into the military today, and they can't fill their quotas, and they're still discharging very, very high qualified people who are gays and lesbians. it doesn't make sense. [upbeat retro music] - 1970s became this time when a lot of people in the military were beginning to awaken to their right to be gay in the military and that we're not going to take this anymore. - the government has no place telling us what our sexual preferences should be. - well, leonard matlovich was a technical sergeant in the air force, purple heart, bronze star, very well respected. in 1975, he decided that he could no longer live with himself being dishonest about who he was. - so i let the air force know that i was gay, that i had a perfect military record, and i wanted to stay in the air force. - discharge proceedings began. so he sued. and his lawsuit made the cover of "time" magazine. this was the first time that this issue of gays in the military had gotten such mainstream media coverage. - here, i have the new centennial $0.50 piece. and on the back of it, it says, 200 years of freedom. not yet. it will be, though. all the way. - once somebody breaks through the barrier, like matlovich did, right, it brings up the issue in a way that people have to deal with. so people can say, you know, he shouldn't be in the military. or people will say he's a hero for being in the military. he really becomes sympathetic. - gay people are oppressed in this country. whether they're chains of the wrist or the mind, we are an oppressed people. - this was a real turning point for the gay rights movement. [gentle waves lapping] - you know, when i was in the marine corps, i was a legal officer, and i loved it. i thought this is really great. in the military, it provided discipline and justice at the same time. and i thought, you know, this is something i should consider doing. we were applying for law school, and i was getting into law school. and court, he was having a hard time. i was getting into some good schools, and he wasn't. and we figured out that it was because of that damn less than honorable discharge. his dad actually hired an investigator and sent the investigator back to the midwest, where the accuser was from. and they found his criminal record. and he had been accused of standing out in front of either an elementary school or high school, flashing little girls. they took that record back to the board. the board said, your service record is great. we have this one incident by a guy who's now a convicted felon. and we're going to overturn and give you an honorable discharge. well, i graduated from law school, got my law degree, passed the bar. and court passed the bar. and then we moved to san francisco. [mike lesirge's "work it out"] - ♪ ooh! ♪ fire is coming ♪ so let's be ♪ be together ♪ yeah, let's be ♪ be together ♪ can't get higher - i grew up in the san francisco bay area. and the gay community in san francisco was a transformative thing. it was this idea that this community could form itself, speak on its own terms, stand up for themselves, produce a full-blown glorious spectacle of a culture that everybody else in the country was either afraid of or mystified by or covetous of or wanted to visit on vacation. - castro street is kind of the center of gay san francisco. - people came from all over america to live in san francisco. because there, they could live free. because there, you could be who you are. you could live the way you wanted to live. you didn't have to hide. you didn't have to fear. it was magnetic. it still is magnetic. ♪ [somber music] ♪ - in june, a cluster of strange pneumonia cases began to crop up in gay men, then a rare cancer that left purple lesions on their bodies, persistent rashes, lingering colds, fungal infections, dramatic weight loss. - when the first cases of aids were announced in "the new york times" on july 3 of 1981, we see a series of sort of moral panics. - really felt like me and all my friends against our government and our country against us and us experiencing mass death and suffering and being a source of levity, in the worst cases, for the reagan administration, but mostly just being ignored. - to have that many americans dying of something brand new and it not being important enough for the president to even talk about it, let alone act to counter it, is a radicalizing thing and an alienating thing. - it's like being at war. our friends were dying right and left. we were going to more funerals than weddings. it was awful. - with the aids epidemic, it was a regular fact of life to be in your 20s and have your friends who were the same age as you dying all around you. it's, um... you know, it just-- it changes you forever. [bird chirps] - here's court. i love this picture. he's hamming it up with one of my fellow marines and his wife. he was something else. our relationship kind of evolved after we were together for a long time. we decided that we would have an open relationship, did safe sex and all that sort of thing. and then one day court called me in my office. i'll never forget it. he said, i've got some terrible news, and you're not going to believe it. he said, i've tested hiv positive. i said, jesus. he said, i want you to get a test. so i call my doctor on the phone, and i said to him, my lover has tested positive for hiv, and i need to take the test. the next day, doctor said, tom, you are not hiv positive. i said, that is impossible. we had court having to deal with this, and we tried with all these medications. and he would go into the hospital for blood transfusion, and... the doctor said, i want to keep him in here. next day, i went to see him, and got there, and he wasn't in his room. so i went to the nurse's station. where the hell is he? she said, he was delirious last night. he was running around, beating on the wall and screaming. he was so delirious that we took him and put him in another room. and within an hour, he was in a coma. i would go and sleep there at the hospital every night with him and put water on his lips. and the doctor comes to me and says, his organs are starting to shut down. it's not going to be long. it was about 2:00 in the afternoon on a saturday. and they said, he's gone. i said, oh, shit. yeah. sunday was easter morning. and i got up and decided i would go to the chapel at palos verdes. you know, it's the third day, and you got to have hope. [sniffles] before i went to the chapel, i walked over to the cliffs of palos verdes. and he and i had been out there many times. and i looked over the edge. and i came really, really, really close to jumping. i said, i don't know how i can live another day. and then i... i just heard this voice. no, no. you have to go on. you have to go on. you know, what could be more appropriate than easter? salonpas, makers of powerful pain relief patches for 89 years... believes in continuous improvement... like rounded corners that resist peeling, with an array of active ingredients... and sizes to relieve your pain. salonpas. it's good medicine. and si- toast to new york. relieveyeah. pain. [hip-hop music] - when bill clinton campaigned for the presidency, he talked about the gay community in a way that wasn't insulting or cruel. there were gay people who were involved in his campaign, including at high levels. it felt like a lot was possible after 12 years of ronald reagan and george h.w. bush and particularly how terrible they were on aids, but also how they were willing to play with cruelty, targeting suffering communities for their own political ends. i mean, it was-- we really needed a relief from that. [crowd cheering] - bill clinton and i met each other in the anti-war movement. he was working for senator fulbright. we became very close. when he decided to run for president, mickey kantor called me and said, we want you to support bill's race for president. and i said, i've got to tell you the truth. i can't do that right now. i don't know where he stands on the issues that concerns my community. i can't go ask people in my community to support him. just have to say, well, he's a good guy. trust him. because we don't trust anybody anymore, even good guys. mickey said, what are the issues? and i said passage of a civil rights law to protect us in public accommodations and jobs, an executive order to make it legal for openly lgbtq people to serve in the military, and an aids program. came back and said, we're on board with all three issues. that sealed the deal. ♪ we raised millions of dollars, did ads, mobilized across the country, did everything. we couldn't have done more. - candidate clinton went to bat for gays. - i have a vision, and you're a part of it. - what was an issue became reality to a lot of people. - i met david in hollywood hills. it was a fundraiser. he was a speaker. he mentioned that clinton had promised him if he became president that he would lift the ban on gays in the military, which, of course, perked my ears up. then he told me about an organization called the campaign for military service. subsequently, i was contacted by them. and they asked me if i would come to washington to be part of a lobbying effort to help president clinton, as we say in the military, set the battlefield. [cheers and applause] - i, william jefferson clinton, do solemnly swear-- - during his presidential campaign, bill clinton pledged to end the ban on homosexuality in the u.s. military by a stroke of the pen. - literally, banner headline, clinton to sign executive orders allowing gays to serve in the military. - the limitation on open service was not enshrined in the law. it was enshrined in military regulations. therefore, the commander in chief could end it. he was elected, took office, and the issue immediately overwhelmed him. he was dealing with very powerful political forces who were opposed to change. - i actually went to washington and lobbied strom thurmond. here i am, you know, a guy that appointed me to annapolis. i'm now, you know, out of the marines. and i'm a lawyer. and i'm going to speak to him about something which he strongly opposed. - homosexuality is incompatible with military service. - i went back and i said, you guys, we're never going to get this thing done. - and then the shit hit the fan. - mr. secretary, you've been in office only two days, and yet the halls of the pentagon are just vibrating with this tension between you and the joint chiefs. - well, you know it all started with a stolen memo. [dramatic music] - there was a memo during the transition that was written on the house armed services committee computers. and after we had gotten to the pentagon, someone found it and leaked it. - everybody had an opinion on whether or not we should end the ban on homosexuality in the u.s. military. - someone who didn't want that to happen leaked it to a person in the press. - the joint chiefs feel like they just were not consulted. this thing has been rammed down their throat. - no, the point is that it is a negotiation. - political leadership in both parties was very opposed to this. and the effect was forcing public discussion of this before the clinton administration was organized. so it got everyone off to a pretty bad footing right from the jump. - those people who opposed it got on the committee that was examining it. the chairman of the senate armed services committee, sam nunn, literally went to the field to ask questions. posed them in a way to say, do you guys want to serve with queers? - let me just get a show of hands of everybody who would be in favor of keeping the policy like it is now, which is keeping your private life private. - sam nunn was running around the country going into aircraft carriers and going into bunks and submarines and saying, we can't have these people close together. you know, it's going to be terrible for unit morale and discipline. and the word got out. and once it did, there was an uproar over it. clinton, i think, wanted to do it, but he understood. he was a brand new president. he was taking on a really big institution right out of the gate, so to speak, to take on the military. you know, that's why he had les aspin set up this group to take a look at it and come up with some sort of way we could do that. - representatives from each of the then five armed services were brought together to address removing the ban of gays in the military. that's the way i read it. that's the way i saw it. but on the other side, you've got people who are coming up with all kinds of reasons to why we should keep the ban. it became a big problem. and that group incorporated feedback from the chaplains corps of each of the services. and they stacked all kinds of their reasoning without thought. i wrote my opinion. and i was ordered to reword my position paper because it sounded too much like i was in favor of keeping gays in the military. being told if i want to have a fruitful career, then i would do the things that were necessary. i didn't care. i mean, i wanted to do the right thing. - out of the politics of that issue came the law, "don't ask, don't tell." - characterization of the president gave to the new policy, and that was-- he called it an honorable compromise. - "don't ask, don't tell" was a concept that came from a sociologist by the name of moskos. and he came up with this idea. the military won't ask. and you don't tell. and then everything's going to be hunky dory. - the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was very clever. and what it stated was that if you came out or in any way told that you were gay or lesbian or bisexual, it would presume that you would engage in homosexual conduct. so they got around, like, we're not just kicking you out for being gay or lesbian. we're kicking you out because when you say that you're gay or lesbian, we presume you engage in conduct. so we're really actually kicking you out for this conduct that we presume you engage in-- very weird, you know, sort of nuance to the policy. - it ended up, quite frankly, being worse than what we had before because the ban was a policy. it was a dod policy. we backed ourselves into a law. how do you get rid of a law? supreme court finds it unconstitutional or congress repeals a law. - it was just a horrible piece of legislation. he announced it in mid-july. they stopped taking our calls. - clinton signed it, and he thought, ok, this is a compromise. we're taking a step forward. people will now have the visibility. actually, they won't have the visibility. they'll have to hide. but still, we'll allow them to be there, ok? - gays and lesbians will only be able to reveal their homosexuality without fear of punishment to chaplains, doctors, or lawyers. - there was so much hypocrisy involved in all of this. the more ardent they were against gays in the military, the more you wondered about them. all: no justice, no peace. - if you think something's really bad, you've got to give witness. [protesters chanting] - it's unacceptable. it still keeps the gays and lesbians in the closet. - a group of us decided to get arrested outside the house of my good friend bill clinton. being a friend of bill's, the press really showed up. they arrested us. i could see people in the white house's faces that i knew looking out the window. yeah. i finally got bailed out. i get back to my hotel, my phone rings. and it's the president of the united states. and he said, you got arrested outside my fucking home. and i said, with all due respect, mr. president, that's the people's house. it isn't your house. and we're just letting you use it. click. 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[pensive music] we're setting up this organization. it's called service members legal defense network, and our mission is to provide legal services for people that are negatively impacted by "don't ask, don't tell." would you like to become a board member? - one of the worst things about "don't ask, don't tell" is the isolating effect that it had on service members who weren't sure who they could trust or who they could talk to. organizations like the service members legal defense network let people know that they weren't alone. - you know, when court died and i really was lost, i thought, you know, this is something i should do. this is something that's had a negative impact on my life and courtland's life, and we need to try to see if we can fix this. so i didn't hesitate for a moment. when they told me what they were trying to do, i knew that's where i needed to be. it was a calling that i felt deep in my heart. and i thought it was really, really important for the military, for our country, and for our community. - "don't ask, don't tell" wasn't, in fact, working. there were people asking and probing. - you didn't have to be on the base. you could be on the town at a gay bar and the shore patrol could come in and see you holding hands with somebody, and they could bring you up on a charge. - they were getting found and in some cases, literally assaulted. - a soldier, a member of an elite military unit, murdered in his barracks. the chief suspect, a fellow soldier. - barry winchell was an infantry soldier and was dating a transgender woman. it led to a whole slew of harassment and verbal abuse by people in his unit. one night in july of 1999, one of his coworkers, as winchell slept in a cot outside his barracks, bludgeoned him to death, died the next day. and "don't ask, don't tell" was considered a culprit in that climate because it stigmatized gay people and made it harder to report harassment without worrying about coming under scrutiny and being penalized as the victim. - we have a breaking news story to tell you about. apparently, a plane has just crashed into the world trade center here in new york city. it happened just a few moments ago, apparently. we have very little information available. - the terrorist attacks of 9/11 had a profound impact on the way the country looked at "don't ask, don't tell." on september 10, 2001, the national security apparatus intercepted a cable from al-qaeda operatives in afghanistan that said "tomorrow is zero hour. the match is about to begin." and it was deemed high priority to be translated. but it was sent in arabic, and there was a backlog because there weren't enough arabic translators. - seven arab translators kicked out of a prestigious military language institute because they're gay. is this really the time to enforce the "don't ask, don't tell" policy? - you have created your own problem by kicking people out who are qualified, and you need them now. and then it became, well, we know these other people are gay, but we're not going to get rid of them because we need them. [gunshot] - they said, ok, we're in war now. we got to keep all the gay people. now, wait a minute. wait a minute. when we're at garrison and we're marching around and polishing our shoes, that's when they kick us out. when we go to war and they really need us, they keep us in. this is the height of hypocrisy. - the military, historically, has relaxed its strictures on gay people in the military at times when the military was being used more. so if the argument is that the military can't function at times of stress if there's gay people around, that is completely disproven by how the military has behaved when it is, in fact, at times of stress. kicking gay people out of the military is a luxury. - i think my biggest accomplishment as a member of the board and the co-chair of the board was working to put in place a strategic plan that had repealed "don't ask, don't tell." plan was legislation, media, communications, and grassroots. the board decided that they really needed somebody who was an expert on legislation. and that's what aubrey was for. - a new election was coming up. and i felt like that would be an opportunity for the organization. - you know, obama made it pretty clear that he wanted to get rid of "don't ask, don't tell." - are you prepared to take the oath, senator? - i am. - his campaign pledge on this issue was very barack obama. i will work with the military leadership to repeal this law, i.e. we're going to go slow. - patrick murphy served as an army captain in the 82nd airborne division in iraq. now in his second term in congress, congressman murphy has just announced that he is taking on lead sponsorship of a bill that would repeal "don't ask, don't tell." - you know, one of the best officers i served with a few months after we both graduated, i found out that he got thrown out of the military. he didn't want to live a life of a lie. when i saw with my own eyes great leaders getting thrown out, i knew if i had the opportunity to serve in the congress, that i was going to try and right that wrong. so when i took over the bill, the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," i literally went to member to member talking to them about we need all the men and women to serve our country during a time of war. we're in afghanistan. we're in iraq. so i would walk them through that. and they went, well, it's going to cost too much money. i'm like, it cost the american taxpayers to throw out young americans just because of who they were. we can't just stand by and punt this to the next generation or the next congress or the next leaders that come through. we got to act now. [applause] - january 2010, secretary of defense bob gates gets a phone call from rahm emanuel, the chief of staff, to say, we're making "don't ask, don't tell" part of our agenda for the year 2010. - this year, i will work with congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are. it's the right thing to do. [cheers and applause] - biggest obstacle to repeal were the chaplains. so the board asks whether i would be willing to work on that with paul dodd, who was a retired army colonel chaplain. we decided that we would put together what we were to call the forum on the military chaplaincy. and paul reached out to a bunch of retired chaplains. and i was really worried, you know. who knows what they're going to say about this gay stuff, right? we had this young soldier that was there. and paul turned to him and said, tell us what happened to you. and he said, i was really struggling with my sexuality. and i told my chaplain i thought i might be gay. and the next thing i know, i'm called up to the command, and they kicked me out. well, you could hear a pin drop in that room. and then colonel dennis camp, army chaplain, said, that is unbelievable that a chaplain would turn in one of the people that came to him for counseling. we need to do something about that. that has got to stop. - gates sold the white house on the concept of a working group. so the issue becomes, well, who's going to lead this working group? the white house settled on me as one of the co-chairs. i would begin with the question, raise your hand if you have served with someone already in your unit that you believe to be gay. 80% of the hands would go up. then i'd ask them, of those of you with your hand up, how many of you believe that the presence of that service member in your unit affected unit cohesion and the ability to get the job done? almost all the hands went down. maybe five or six people would keep their hand up. i took the moment to finally challenge somebody on this. ok, you told me you've been in afghanistan. you've killed the taliban. but you have a problem taking a shower with a gay man. what are you afraid of? people were kind of looking at him like, i want to hear you answer that question. nexium 24hr prevents heartburn acid for twice as long as pepcid. get all-day and all-night heartburn acid prevention with just one pill a day. choose acid prevention. choose nexium. my mom's life is the most important thing to me. hi mom! i called my mom, "i have this gene and i think you need to get tested." she feels like it was truly lifesaving. and i think you need to get tested." [soft dramatic music] - there was a really small window that legislation could pass before congress turned over in january. - we met with members of congress. and we brought barry winchell's parents. - and i think if there was anything that really turned the tide, it was those personal stories. - mr. speaker, today, we have an opportunity to vote once again to close the door on a fundamental unfairness in our nation. - nancy pelosi was critical in this effort. - i said, i promise you this. we will repeal "don't ask, don't tell" by christmas. - once she declared that, she has such an amazing ability to whip the votes and get people behind her. - the motion is adopted without objection. the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. - alleluia. we went. so then we're talking about the senate. how are we going to pass this in the senate? - i've heard from thousands of active duty and retired military personnel. and they're saying, senator mccain, it isn't broke, and don't fix it. - john mccain led the opposition for reasons i'll never fully understand. he was a vehement opponent of repealing the law. others were strong proponents of repealing the law. joe lieberman, carl levin, gillibrand. and then there were some on the fence. jim webb, susan collins needed to be persuaded one way or another and were anxiously awaiting the report-- this report right here. the report is voluminous and comprehensive, but we hope it speaks for itself. our basic assessment is that our military can make this change. - the senate was going to be an uphill battle. - the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. - we're where they said, ok, the vote's coming up now. so we started bringing the service members around to the different senate offices saying, hi, senator landrieu. this is captain tony woods. he was discharged under "don't ask, don't tell." we want to make sure that you've looked him in the eyes and spoken to him before you take this vote. - mr. graham. mr. grassley. - every senator was going to have to look at the service members and tell them they were voting no, against their lives, against their patriotism, against their service. - if not on this vote, the yeas are 63. the nays are 33. 3/5 of the senate duly chosen and sworn having voted in the affirmative, the motion is agreed to without objection. [cheers and applause] [bright music] - 2965 is adopted. - with 65 votes, eight of them republican, the senate voted to end the ban on gays serving openly in the military. - i got a call from the white house. and they said, patrick, we just passed in the senate. - this is done. [cheers and applause] - it was emotional. it was a special moment that-- that we did something that was going to make history, that was going to right a wrong that was a wrong for way too long. - the room is full of all these people, members of congress, representative pelosi. it was an unreal moment. i couldn't believe that we had accomplished this goal that we had set forth so many years ago. i almost felt like i had to pinch myself to believe i was even there. and then my mind flashed back to courtland, and i thought how proud he would be of my part. he would have said bravo zulu. well done. - stories like tom's, those are the people who built this legislation. that's the house that was built on solid ground because of sldn. [crowd cheering] - the repeal of this law was part of a cascade of things that, in my judgment, moved us toward a more perfect union. gay marriage became a constitutional right. - the idea of somebody like me being able to be a lieutenant, let alone a cabinet official or a presidential candidate was preposterous just a couple of decades before it happened. so sitting here in 2023, we can recognize the extraordinary progress and growth that is possible, bearing in mind that none of that's secure, none of that's safe, and no progress takes place on a one-way street. - the march toward a more perfect union is not linear. - stop being a homosexual! - with every step forward, you very frequently have a reactionary step backward. - you have to be ready, you know? you've got to be prepared. there's going to be a fight that this is never over. - let kids be kids! all: let kids be kids! - sweep away the hate. - there may be setbacks and may be disappointments. but as franklin roosevelt said in his last inaugural address in 1945, the trajectory of this nation is forever upward. and i believe that too. - tom was always committed to win. and when i say win, i mean, achieve the ability for lgbtq people to serve. he was steadfast in that 20 years ago and has always been that voice through all of the changes that happened over the intervening years. - i didn't realize i would be given this opportunity to do something that really had an impact on the lives of so many young people and made our country better and made the military better. it means a tremendous amount to me. ♪

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