美国国家公共电台 NPR To 'Get Even' With 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' He Brought Military Float To Pride Parade

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SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:

This week for StoryCorps' Military Voices Initiative¹ - a story about being seen. In the final days of don't ask, don't tell, Navy operations specialist Sean Sala decided² to do what had never been done before - march with an active duty military contingent³ in a Pride parade. It was July of 2011, just two months before the end of the policy that barred LGBTQ people from serving openly in the U.S. armed forces. At StoryCorps, Sean sat down with his friend and fellow organizer Fernando Zweifach Lopez to remember.

SEAN SALA: There were people that killed themselves over don't ask, don't tell. So I felt like I needed to do something to get even with the policy. So I registered the float and then there I was on TV saying that this needed to happen and I didn't tell my command I was doing that.

FERNANDO ZWEIFACH LOPEZ: Oh, that's right, that's right. You know, I personally wasn't prepared for the backlash that we got internally. I remember two older lesbian veterans who approached me at a bar, and they told me that I was going to do so much harm.

SALA: I did get a lot of people that were like, you're going to get people kicked out. What you're doing is wrong.

LOPEZ: You called me in tears. And I said, look; there are always going to be people who are going to tell you no, and you have to just know that what you are doing is the right thing to do. And the news just exploded.

SALA: Exploded.

LOPEZ: And we're getting calls from all over the world, all over the country and people are saying, I'm driving in from Florida for this. I'm driving in from New York. And then there we were day of.

SALA: Day of.

LOPEZ: We lined up, and then the parade kicked off and it started with the military contingent. It was sort of really just quiet in anticipation⁴ of what was about to happen.

SALA: When we turned the corner, the sound of the crowd, I will never forget that. People were screaming.

LOPEZ: I remember seeing this senior veteran in a wheelchair crying, and he stood up and it was just so meaningful. And that's, I think, what so many people realize is that's the first time they feel like they're home, is at a Pride event.

SALA: As much as we did deal with BS, tons of people showed up, saying thank you for what you're doing. I was like wow, this is redemption. We got it done.

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MCCAMMON: That was Sean Sala speaking with his friend Fernando Zweifach Lopez. About 200 military service members showed up that day. The following year in 2012, Sean and Fernando fought for and won blanket approval from the Pentagon for all military service members to march in San Diego Pride in uniform. Sala and Lopez's interview will be archived, along with hundreds of thousands of others, at the Library of Congress.

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