Since “don’t ask, don’t tell” has been repealed, all’s peachy for lesbians and gay men in the military, yes? Umm, no. Serving openly has made it much clearer all the more subtle ways that lesbians and gay men are excluded from full participation — particularly, the fact that the military does not support its gay service members’ families in the same way that heterosexual service members’ families are supported.

For more, check out the Los Angeles Times report on OutServe’s first-ever conference, held in Las Vegas. (Which is amusingly ironic; isn’t Vegas the epicenter of don’t ask don’t tell — you know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?) “Under ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,'” said Lt. Josh Seefried, OutServe’s founder, “inequality was invisible. You just had to kick someone out and you could ignore the problem.” Read more here.

E.J. Graff writes on social-justice and human-rights issues, particularly discrimination and violence against women and children; marriage and family policy; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender lives. She is a resident scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center and the author of What Is Marriage For? The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution (Beacon Press, 1999, 2004).