SLDN, OutServe announce merger

Two key players in the fight to overturn ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ will join forces in October of this year, the organization’s leaders, Josh Seefried & Aubrey Sarvis, announced in a video this week. (File photos by Michael Key)

WASHINGTON — Two of the nation’s most visible organizations that battled the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy announced this week their boards had unanimously approved a merger.

The two organizations will complete their merger by Oct. 2012, and will combine the 20-year-old legal defense organization with the two-year-old gay and lesbian active duty association to better represent gay service members and veterans, according to a video released by the leaders of both organizations, Aubrey Sarvis and Josh Seefried.

“The leadership of OutServe and SLDN have come together in an unprecedented way to move the ball forward on the mission of full LGBT military equality, and we couldn’t be more proud of this combined effort to serve the brave LGBT men and women in our armed forces,” OutServe co-founder and co-director Ty Walrod said in a statement.