Talk:Servicemembers Legal Defense Network

DADT enacted or established

DADT was not enacted into law. Much of it was, but the entire "Don't ask" part was not. That part was included in DOD directives. I will be making that clear in my updating of the DADT entry, which I'm working on. The whole enactment/initiation of the policy is not dealt with very well in the DADT entry, especially compared to the great length with which we cover the lifting of the policy. But even now the DADT entry says:

Congress included text in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1994 (passed in 1993) requiring the military to abide by regulations essentially identical to the 1982 absolute ban policy.[33] The Clinton Administration on December 21, 1993,[34] issued Defense Directive 1304.26, which directed that military applicants were not to be asked about their sexual orientation.

(There were actually a bunch of directives.) So it's clear that it took two actions to get DADT into place. It was partly enacted and partly established by military directives which could be withdrawn at any time because they were not legislated. That's one of the reasons hard-line critics of DADT who wanted to return to open inquiries about sexual orientation were mad at George W. Bush for not simply withdrawing the directives and going back to asking the sexual orientation question outright, which he could have done.

Bmclaughlin9 (talk) 01:16, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Merger with outserve-- when to merge articles?

Current article says: "On July 2, 2012, SLDN announced that it would merge with OutServe, an organization of active gay and lesbian military personnel, in October 2012.[3]". It is October of 2012, and I'm starting to find articles about the merger. When does it make sense to update or merge the articles for OutServe and SLDN? Does it make sense to make a new page for the combined organization? I'm probably making an article for Allyson Robinson in a minute. Awk (talk) 16:35, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

If you check the source, it says "The close is expected at the next board meetings of the two groups, scheduled to take place October 26-28 in Orlando, FL." And today (late last night) Geidner writes: "Robinson will take the helm of both SLDN and OutServe, as the groups complete their merger as OutServe-SLDN this weekend at the combined group’s first board meeting in Florida." So the merger hasn't quite happened. And do we really believe that's the new name? I'd wait until there's an official announcement in the next few days. Bmclaughlin9 (talk) 17:58, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

They've released a new logo that combines all the elements of the two old ones. More of a mashup than a merger. The new name may actually be OutServe-SLDN. Bmclaughlin9 (talk) 18:05, 25 October 2012 (UTC)