Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis) is a pioneer. Rep. Baldwin, 48, was the first woman elected to Congress from the state of Wisconsin. She is also the first openly gay, non-incumbent candidate to be elected to Congress in the United States.

After fifteen years together, Baldwin and her partner, Lauren Azar, are separating. Baldwin and Azar were among the first couples to register as domestic partners in Wisconsin in 2009. Wisconsin’s domestic partnership legislation offers registered couples benefits such as hospital visitation rights.

As far as the separation goes, the former couple has kept mainly silent.

An announcement issued through Baldwin’s office has been the only public statement regarding the break-up.  “Accordingly, they will also terminate their Wisconsin domestic partnership,” the announcement says. “Neither Tammy nor Lauren will have any further public comment on this very private matter.”

An avid reader, Baldwin used literature to ease the coming-out process in college. “Books played an important role in giving context to a topic rarely discussed in schools or around the dinner table.”  Randy Shilts’ The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, and the works of Professor John Boswell and Rita Mae Brown, helped her realize that a lesbian can take an active role in shaping public policy.

First elected to the House of Representatives in 1999, Baldwin has been an avid champion of universal healthcare and LGBT rights. She has also played a huge part in orchestrating passage of the Domestic Partnership and Obligations Act, a bill that she co-sponsored in the House with Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), also a champion of LGBT rights. The bill ensures that the partners of federal employees receive federal benefits, such as health insurance.

After coming out as a lesbian in college, Baldwin has never looked back. While running for office, she decided that she would run a truthful campaign—and that meant being open about her sexual orientation. She never hid the fact that she was a lesbian. “But there was also, believe it or not, an advantage to being open and honest about who I am. In a world too full of half-truths and whole lies, those of us who are “out” are perceived as being honest–of having integrity,” says Baldwin on her website.

“When I ran for the Wisconsin Assembly in 1992, people told me time and time again that my integrity mattered. I remember being approached by a gentleman who I wouldn’t have picked to be a big supporter. But he got up to me and said, ‘Gosh, Lady, you’ve sure got guts. If you can be honest about that, you’ll probably be honest about everything.’ I got his vote!”

Baldwin’s political career began inauspiciously. As a middle-school student, she ran for Student Council President and lost. She also lost elections in high school and college, failing to become the high school graduation speaker and college class president. Despite these early losses, she forged ahead to pave the way for American women and lesbians interested in politics. “I hope that’s a lesson for other people, young and older, who are dreaming big dreams!”

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By DMITRY RASHNITSOV

Petty Officer Larry Whitt of Fort Lauderdale traveled to Washington DC two months ago and got arrested after chaining himself to the White House. Now Officer Whitt and the thousands of other United States military personnel who have been fighting the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy know their work has not been in vain. By a 234-194 vote last week, The United States House of Representatives approved an amendment to repeal the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. Miami representative Ileana Ros Lehtinen was one of the few republicans to vote for the repeal.The Senate Armed Service Committee, by a 16-12, approved a similar amendment repealing DADT. Florida Senator Bill Nelson did vote for the repeal in the committee. The full Senate must still vote on the measure, expected sometime this week.

If the amendment is passed in the Senate, the actual repeal would take place 60 days after a Pentagon report about the affects of letting gays and lesbians serve openly is completed. The report is due by December 1.

“I am pleased that both the House of Representatives and the Senate Armed Services Committee took important bipartisan steps toward repeal tonight… Our military is made up of the best and bravest men and women in our nation, and my greatest honor is leading them as Commander-in-Chief. This legislation will help make our Armed Forces even stronger and more inclusive by allowing gay and lesbian soldiers to serve honestly and with integrity,” President Obama said in a statement after making it a campaign pledge of his to repeal the ban.

The American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER) and other LGBT groups are not exactly jumping in the air in excitement about having to wait for the actual repeal to happen after the December 1 report is returned, but they are pleased that this step towards LGBT equality was a long time coming.

“AVER is cautiously optimistic that the actions taken by Congress this week towards repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ will eventually accomplish an end to discrimination against gay and lesbian service members and halt the discharge of trained military professionals who possess critical skills necessary for our nation’s defense against terrorist attack,” said AVER National President Danny Ingram.

“The bottom line of this week’s actions, however, is that today openly gay and lesbian troops are still being discharged from the military, which means that critical support services are still being denied to troops on the battlefield. And crucial members of America’s intelligence operations, including highly trained military linguists, are still being ejected from service.”

Support for the repeal among the general U.S. population is the strongest it has ever been. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey taken last week announced that 78 percent of the public favor allowing openly gay people to serve in the military.

Still, some right wing Christian groups are vehemently fighting to keep the ban intact.

According to a research paper published by the Family Research Council, an anti-GLBT group, “The military already has a serious problem with sexual assault by homosexuals. If the current law against homosexuality in the military is overturned, the problem of same-sex sexual assault in the military is sure to increase.

If the law is overturned and open homosexuals are welcomed into the military, the number of homosexuals in the armed forces can only increase-leading to a corresponding increase in same-sex sexual assaults.”

The Family Research Council findings conclude that. “Allowing open homosexuality in the military would do nothing to enhance the readiness or effectiveness of our armed forces. On the contrary, it would clearly damage them-in part because it would increase the already serious problem of homosexual assault in the military.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid believes he has the 60 votes needed to get the legislation passed as part of the annual Pentagon budget.

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By DMITRY RASHNITSOV

After more than a year and a half of waiting for President Barack Obama to push through his campaign promise of repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,”—the military police that does not allow gays and lesbians to serve openly—it appears the White House and Congress have finally agreed on a way to repeal the ban.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., has introduced a compromise amendment that the full senate will begin debating on Thursday. Rep. Patrick Murphy, DPa., an Iraq war veteran has introduced the bill

in the House of Representatives as part of the defense authorization bill.

The proposal would allow Congress to vote to repeal the current DADT law now with implementation to follow upon completion of the Pentagon Working Group study due December 1, 2010. The President, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs would need to certify that implementation policies and regulations are prepared and that they are consistent with standards for readiness, effectiveness, unit cohesion, recruiting and retention. The plan therefore addresses concerns expressed by the Pentagon that the implementation study process be respected.

“We are committed to repealing `Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ a policy that has forced thousands of gay men and women from serving openly in our Armed Forces,” said a statement Monday from Lieberman and Murphy. “It is our firm belief that it is time to repeal this discriminatory policy.”

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had been lobbying for the military’s yearlong review of DADT to happen first before the repeal amendment went through.

Gates “continues to believe that ideally the [Defense Department] review should be completed before there is any legislation to repeal the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell law,” according to a statement by Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell. But “with Congress having indicated that is not possible; the secretary can accept the language in the proposed amendment.”

The White House’s announcement came in a response to a letter that the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) had written to Obama in April.

“The White House announcement is a dramatic breakthrough in dismantling ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ The path forward crafted by the President, Department of Defense officials, and repeal leaders on Capitol Hill respects the ongoing work by the Pentagon on how to implement open service and allows for a vote this week,” said SLDN Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis. “President Obama’s support and Secretary Gates’ buy-in should insure a winning vote, but we are not there yet. The votes still need to be worked and counted.”

In a poll of 1,023 adults taken by CNN from May 21-23 over the phone, nearly 78 percent of respondents said that gays and lesbians should be able to serve openly in the military. This is similar results to polls taken in December 2008, May 2007 and December 2003.

“We are on the brink of historic action to both strengthen our military and respect the service of lesbian and gay troops,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. ““Without a repeal vote by Congress this year, the Pentagon’s hands are tied and the armed forces will be forced to continue adhering to the discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law.”

Rep. Murphy said the House has the votes to pass the amendment, including the 192 co-sponsors who jumped on the bill.

“I don’t think Secretary Gates or Admiral Mullen could have been more clear: It’s not a question of If, it’s a question of When,” Murphy said. “This day is long in coming.”

However, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said he is not sure if the Senate will get the votes yet to pass the legislation.

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Cuban-American Donna Milo, 48, has her sights on Congress and hopes to unseat U.S. Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston. And while Wasserman is considered a far-to-the-left liberal, Milo is an unapologetically conservative and a transgender woman.

But as she says, “I don’t like labels.”

Instead, Milo believes in her actions speaking volumes in terms of who she is and what she represents.

“I am an American . . . my triumphs are based on my abilities, not on a label or a crutch,” she adds.

Milo’s story is indeed typical of the immigrant family that moves to the U.S. for greater opportunities and the realization of their dreams. She was born ‘Ed’ and the youngest of nine children in Cuba. Her family immigrated to Miami in 1964 and to Ft. Lauderdale four years later. Then months before graduating from Stranahan High School, Ed Milo quit school to help the family — her father, an auto mechanic was ill and money was short.

Milo then studied to become a contractor, eventually became a home builder and even married his high school sweetheart at the age of 19. Their children, Michael and Emily are now 25 and 22. But Milo admits that there was always something that nagged at her from inside.

The Transition Begins

“I identified feelings as far back as I could remember,” she said. “I didn’t have an awareness that there was such a thing until very late in my teen years. I thought I was alone.”

Then in the 1990s, Milo sought medical and psychological advice, and, after telling then-wife Isabel, began her transition. She would divorce, live three years as a woman and in 2000 legally became Donna, shortly thereafter undergoing gender-reassignment surgery. “

After I transitioned and became at peace with myself and my life and my body, I’ve been able to give time to the community,” she said.

Milo would indeed become involved in her Miami Shorecrest neighborhood, joining the city’s Planning Advisory Board five years ago before recently deciding to run for the House of Representatives for the 20th C o n g r e s s i o n a l District. The district includes parts of Miami, Weston, Plantation and Wilton Manors.

The issues don’t include gay rights Milo has been busy over the past month, speaking at the A v i e / C o o p e r Republican Club, the Republican Jewish Coalition Meeting in Plantation, the Republican Business Network Meeting in Coral Springs and various clusters of the Florida Federation of Republican Women.

Some have said she didn’t believe that a transgender woman was running for office but have discovered that this lady means business.

“The people are my first and foremost priority,” she says in her mission statement, as posted on her website, www.donnamilo. com. “I will make decisions and act based on your input and the public interest, not on any personal or special interest agenda.”

Reviewing Milo’s campaign issues are illustrative of a hard core, conservative and despite her avoiding labels, it is clear that is where her heart lies.

She is opposed to higher taxes and favors a simplified tax code, believes that the U.S. should take control of its borders and implement more effective immigration measures, wants to see the insurance industry deregulated, is a staunch pro life advocate and wants to see an end to the country’s dependence on foreign oil. In addition, she says she would never vote for any form of stimulus or bailout and is, perhaps most surprisingly, believes that the rights of marriage should only be extended to “a man and a woman.” The campaign trail is still ahead.

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