The Service Members Legal Defense Network ( SLDN ) has a new commander. Aubrey Sarvis officially starts as executive director on Oct. 1, but he already is putting in time at the office and sat down to talk about the path that led him here and what needs to be done to lift the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military.
Sarvis grew up in a small town of 2,000, Galivants Ferry, in the deeply segregated northeast corner of South Carolina. The closest large place was Myrtle Beach, before it became an epicenter of golf courses and vacation condos.
'I was 17 years old, didn't really know what I wanted to do, didn't have a lot of direction or focus, and decided to join the Army,' he says. Others in his family had served, there was still the draft, and it was 1962; the United States' involvement in Vietnam hadn't really started to heat up yet.
He ended up in the infantry in South Korea and was deployed to Vietnam as an advisor before being discharged three years later.
For Sarvis, the experience taught him 'an appreciation for the larger world, what today we might call diversity. Coming from the South, and a small town, at that point I had never really worked with blacks one-on-one as colleagues. I learned to work together as a team. That's one of the great things about the military…It was also the first time I really met people from New York and California. It was eye opening.'
After the Army, Sarvis moved to Washington, D.C. and started classes at American University. He needed to put money in his pocket and felt attracted to the business of the company town—politics. 'I started walking around the halls of the House and the Senate with my resume in hand. I was cheap and available.' He ended up working for Democratic Congressman from El Paso, Texas, starting as a gofer and working his way up.
But the bulk of his Hill career was spent working for Nevada Senator Howard Cannon where he became a specialist in communications deregulation as the ATT monopoly broke up into the 'Baby Bells' and the wireless revolution was launched.
Cannon's defeat for reelection, the Democrats loss of control in the Senate, and a solid offer led Sarvis in 1983 to the private sector, working for Bell Atlantic, now Verizon. He continued to work on telecommunications issues after he set up his own lobbying shop.
THE MOVE
The lanky Sarvis readily acknowledges that moving to SLDN is a huge change for him. He says he had been looking to do something different, probably on the nonprofit side, 'and trying to find something that aligned with my interests; something that I felt was important.'
He matches up well with the criteria the board was looking for in their search. He had served in the military, had experience on Capitol Hill and in the private sector, and had sat on corporate and nonprofit boards.
In announcing the appointment, SLDN board cochair Commander Zoe Dunning, USNR ( Ret. ) said, 'We stand very tall today and are greatly strengthened by the appointment of Aubrey Sarvis. We feel united by the vision he shares with us to defend and protect America's freedoms around the world while giving LGBT military personnel the freedom to serve openly and unafraid.'
Sarvis says, I've reached alignment with the board on a national political campaign to repeal the statute,' commonly known as 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' ( DADT ) . 'Our focus is repeal, repeal, repeal.'
'We've got to go out to strategically targeted states and congressional districts—our challenge is to convince the members of the House and Senate that this is about fairness. And fairness means repeal.'
'We have to persuade a number of the 'old bulls' [ of Congress who voted for DADT in 1993 ] that the policy has failed. It may have been conceived with the best intentions, but the record indicates that it isn't working, and, frankly, it never should have been instituted.'
'We have to persuade them it is unfair, and we have to provide them with the comfort level to do the right thing.' That means, politically, 'They will be okay if they support us.'
ROAD AHEAD
SLDN hopes to introduce a bipartisan repeal bill in the Senate later this fall 'that is very strategic with the initial key cosponsors.' Sarvis says they are talking with sponsors of the existing House repeal bill about 'not only when the hearing should be but how it should be structured, what should be the focus in terms of witnesses. What do we want to focus on?'
He cautions, everyone has to be realistic; repeal is not going to pass in this session of Congress, and even if it did, it likely would be vetoed. 'We're laying the foundation for 2009 or 2010, we're building a legislative record.'
'When that new president comes in, and it wouldn't have to be in the first 100 days, we want to see the new president propose to the Congress the legislation to repeal the statute. Then it becomes the president's proposal. So, it's a plus when the [ Democratic ] candidates [ for president ] say they want it repealed.'
Sarvis says, 'I see this as a broad coalition that is very mainstream. This issue is as important to the straight community as it is to the gay community. I believe that most Americans are fair…we want to appeal to the best in people. We need a lot of new friends—that is about education, education, education.'
'We need a more extensive and sophisticated grassroots network. We probably need to do some infrastructure building here in the office, in terms of our technology, to be in those districts' and reach the media in key districts.
Sarvis acknowledges this is going to cost a lot of money. He 'do [ es ] not want to get into specifics right now, but, I'm aligned with the board to double that cash that we bring in,' which is currently a $3 million annual budget. Donations are appreciated.
But, 'The most important thing a reader can do is to speak up. Your voice is even more important than money. Talk to your Congressman, talk to your Senator. Ask to see them, and say that you believe this is unfair and that they should vote to repeal it.'
