Today we have the honor of sharing two U.S. veteran stories, both out gay military service members who were in basic training together fifteen years ago and have not seen each other since. Army Veterans Cliff Brown, who is a project manager at Home Base, and Jade Griffiths, who works today as a 911 dispatcher, talk to us and each other about how life was for them as LGBTQ-identifying soldiers during Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and after it was repealed, about President Trump’s 2017 reenactment of the Transgender service ban, and how things are going today. Like all periods of struggle for equal rights, you need to look backwards to look ahead, and it’s important for us to continue shed light on these issues and share peoples’ stories. As we near the end of June, we wanted to wish our listeners a Happy Pride month.

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If you are your loved one is experiencing any emotional, mental health struggles, you are not alone and please contact Home Base at (617) 724-5202, or visit www.homebase.org.

Sign up to join us in person or virtually for the 13th Annual Run to Home Base  at runtohomebase.org.

Theme music for Home Base Nation: "Rolling the tree" by The Butler Frogs

Additional music in today's episode: "A Gentle Transition" by Immersive Music, purchased and licensed through Premium Beat; and "Lighter" by Crowander, used under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommericial 4.0 licensing term

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The Home Base Nation Team is Steve Monaco, Maureen Roderick, Laurie Gallagher, Karianne Kraus, Lucy Little, Taylor Orlando, with COO Michael Allard, Brigadier General Jack Hammond, and Peter Smyth.

Producer and Host: Dr. Ron Hirschberg
Producer, Sound, Editor: Lucy Little
Chairman, Home Base Media Lab: Peter Smyth

Home Base Nation is the official podcast of Home Base Program for Veterans and Military Families, a partnership of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Red Sox Foundation. To learn more and connect with us at Home Base Nation: www.homebase.org/homebasenation. To Donate to Home Base where every dollar goes to the care of veterans and military families that is cost to them, go to: www.homebase.org/donate.

The views expressed by guests to the Home Base Nation podcast are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by guests are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Home Base, the Red Sox Foundation or any of its officials.