Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. Salutes Senate Resolution of Acknowledgment and Apology

July 7, 2021: The Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. strongly supports the Senate Resolution of formal acknowledgment and apology to the affected LGBT military service members, veterans, Federal civilian employees and their families for the mistreatment and discrimination meted out to them for over six decades by the Federal government. Introduced by Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), the historic resolution is both a formal acknowledgement and apology as well as a recommitment of the Federal Government to treat all military service members, veterans and civil service employees and retirees, including LGBT individuals, with equal respect and fairness.

“We salute Senators Kaine and Baldwin and their Senate colleagues for introducing this profoundly meaningful and important resolution,” said Jeff Trammell, Chairman of the Mattachine Acknowledgment and Apology Project. “The ordeal of generations of LGBT service members and civil servants cannot be erased, but the truth can finally be officially acknowledged by this recognition and apology for what happened.’

Trammell continued, “The Mattachine Society is honored to have brought forward this acknowledgment and apology, supported by a research paper on the history of this federal mistreatment. Mattachine and its legal counsel McDermott Will & Emery produced the white paper which provides a chronology, an “evidentiary history” and the case itself for an acknowledgment and apology.”

The Mattachine Acknowledgment and Apology Project of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. will focus on States, universities and religious organizations seeking information and research resources as they consider their own historic reckonings with their past mistreatment and discrimination against LGBT citizens.

Jeff Trammell, who heads this project for Mattachine, is former Rector (Chair) of the Board of Visitors, of The College of William & Mary and has been a member of the board of trustees of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation; a member of the advisory board of the Holocaust Memorial Museum Gay and Lesbian Remembrance Project and has served the LGBTQ community in a number of capacities.

See the entire resolution here.

See the press release from Senators Kaine and Baldwin here.