WASHINGTON – Servicemembers United said today that it will host a first-ever Open Strategy Forum on the military's controversial "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

The event will bring together veterans, servicemembers, grassroots activists, bloggers, civilian advocates and others to discuss and coordinate strategy and tactics to forward repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law in 2010.

Our Armed Forces remain the most capable in the world, of which we can be rightfully proud. However, they are already struggling to deal effectively with the pernicious challenges facing them in the 21st century. A significant contributor to this degradation in effectiveness is the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that prohibits all service men and women from serving both fully and truthfully in our armed forces. That’s why Senator Joseph Lieberman’s bill to repeal DADT is essential to a stronger military and deserves support.

WASHINGTON – Grassroots activists will gather on Capitol Hill on Thursday, to highlight the growing support for the repeal of the military’s controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy.

More than 300 people are expected to attend the press conference at noon at the House of Representatives Triangle.

Speakers will include:

_ U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, an Iraq veteran and lead sponsor of the bill to repeal DADT.

_ Eric Alva, a former Marine staff sergeant who was the first U.S. soldier wounded in the Iraq and is now a spokesman on DADT for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

WASHINGTON – A gay American soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, and his death was acknowledged Wednesday in the House of Representatives.

On the floor of the House, U.S. Rep. Jim Moran read a letter he had received from an active duty soldier in Afghanistan. Moran said the soldier had “learned that a fellow soldier was also gay, only after he was killed by an IED in Iraq. The partner of the deceased soldier wrote the unit to say how much the victim had loved the military; how they were the only family he had ever known."