SAN DIEGO -- Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) will host its annual San Diego Soiree on Thursday, Nov. 3, to raise money for the organization's work.

Since the repeal of the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy went into effect on Sept. 20, SLDN has continued working to ensure that the armed forces are a safe, welcoming place for LGBT servicemembers.

We often hear memorable references, today, to incredible and powerful moments from the past on the fight for civil rights.

From Stonewall, to the March on Washington, and from the defeat of the Briggs initiative to the overturn of Proposition 8, these moments are the times in which history literally proclaimed with unabridged freedom that our Constitutional creed of "all men are created equal" is not just words on a piece of paper.

It is the life force and the beating heart of justice and the American cause. 

(Editor’s note: SDGLN is publishing a transcript of the historical Department of Defense news briefing at the Pentagon with Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on the occasion of the repeal of the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that prevented open service for gay and lesbian troops.)

SECRETARY LEON PANETTA: Good afternoon. It's good to see everyone again.

Starting tonight, military service members past and present across the country will be celebrating the end of the decades-long ban of gays and lesbians openly serving in the U.S. military.

The new law takes effect Tuesday, at 00:01 a.m., September 20, 2011.

Although all are encouraged to participate in the celebrations, SLDN just wants to remind active duty members of what they need to take into consideration as they understandably get caught up in the revelry of the many different types of gatherings that will take place in the wake of this historic repeal.