Arts & Entertainment
A heroic effort
SLDN co-founder declined Army money to come out, help others serve openly
Michelle Benecke (Blade photo by Michael Key)
Most students are eager to take any scholarship money they can get their hands on, but for Michelle Benecke, this was not her greatest concern.
The former Army officer and co-founder of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), the leading group behind the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” forfeited an Army-funded fellowship to law school because it would have required her to stay in the closet. It may have required her to turn on fellow gay service members.
“I would have to lie about who I was,” Benecke says. “I could not fathom coming back and having to prosecute other gay people [as an Army lawyer].”
Benecke is one of five local LGBT activists being honored as a Capital Pride Hero this year. The other four are Andrew Barnett, executive director of the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League; Eboné Bell, founder of B.O.I. Marketing and Promotions; Kevin Platte, founder of the D.C. Cowboys Dance Company; and Justin B. Terry-Smith, blogger of “Justin’s HIV Journal.”
“It’s wonderful to have one’s contributions recognized by one’s own community, and I feel especially honored to be in the company of the other honorees,” Benecke says.
The recipients of the 37th annual Capital Pride Heroes award will be honored at the Capital Pride Heroes Gala and Silent Auction. The event is Wednesday, from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at LivingSocial (918 F St. NW). Tickets are $50 and are limited to 200 guests. The Gala will include an open bar, hors d’oeuvres and live entertainment. Business or cocktail attire is required. Tickets can be purchased online through capitalpride.org.
Long before she was recognized as a Pride Hero, Benecke began her career as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army. She excelled, but was highly critical of the military’s policies toward gays.
“When I served, witch hunts were the way that the military implemented its gay ban,” she says. “While I was serving, I vowed to myself that I would form an organization that would get rid of the gay ban.”
Benecke was recognized by the military for her excellent leadership, and was selected for the prestigious fellowship to law school that she then forfeited. She enrolled in Harvard Law School in 1989, and began her fight against the military’s gay ban before graduating. She published law journal articles about the issue and testified in various panels on behalf of gay service members.
The day after President Clinton announced “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Benecke co-founded SLDN with Dixon Osburn.
“We felt that if something wasn’t done, the plight of military members would be pushed under the rug,” Benecke says. SLDN was pivotal in the effort to repeal the policy. The organization provided legal assistance to thousands of military members, fostered a national movement against it, secured numerous military reforms and has been Capitol Hill’s go-to source for information about the issue.
SLDN continues to provide legal services to gay service members and veterans as America transitions to a post-“Don’t Ask” military and advocates against the exclusion of transgender people in the military.Although she is no longer SLDN’s CEO, Benecke continues to advise activists and military officials on how to shift to a policy of inclusivity in the military. She currently is a civil servant for the federal government, but is unable to reveal her position.
“I do see and have always seen the military as the linchpin to our freedom,” Benecke says. “In our country, the history has been that when exclusions hold in the military, it also sums up the other civil freedoms.”
“These award winners have demonstrated an extensive breadth and depth of experience and commitment to the LGBT community and beyond,” says Bernie Delia, board president of Capital Pride. “Michelle Benecke, in particular, is being honored this year for her work as a co-founder of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network in light of all that she has done in this area and in particular because of the successful repeal of DADT.”
Denali (@denalifoxx) of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” performed at Pitchers DC on April 9 for the Thirst Trap Thursday drag show. Other performers included Cake Pop!, Brooke N Hymen, Stacy Monique-Max and Silver Ware Sidora.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Arts & Entertainment
In an act of artistic defiance, Baltimore Center Stage stays focused on DEI
‘Maybe it’s a triple-down’
By LESLIE GRAY STREETER | I’m always tickled when people complain about artists “going political.” The inherent nature of art, of creation and free expression, is political. This becomes obvious when entire governments try to threaten it out of existence, like in 2025, when the brand-new presidential administration demanded organizations halt so-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programming or risk federal funding.
Baltimore Center Stage’s response? A resounding and hearty “Nah.” A year later, they’re still doubling down on diversity.
“Maybe it’s a triple-down,” said Ken-Matt Martin, the theater’s producing director, chuckling.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
‘La Lucci’
By Susan Lucci with Laura Morton
c.2026, Blackstone Publishing
$29.99/196 pages
They’re among the world’s greatest love stories.
You know them well: Marc Antony and Cleopatra. Abelard and Heloise. Phoebe and Langley. Cliff and Nina. Jesse and Angie, Opal and Palmer, Palmer and Daisy, Tad and Dixie. Now read “La Lucci” by Susan Lucci, with Laura Morton, and you might also think of Susan and Helmut.
When she was a very small girl, Susan Lucci loved to perform. Also when she was young, she learned that words have power. She vowed to use them for good for the rest of her life.
Her parents, she says, were supportive and her family, loving. Because of her Italian heritage, she was “ethnic looking” but Lucci’s mother was careful to point out dark-haired beauties on TV and elsewhere, giving Lucci a foundation of confidence.
That’s just one of the things for which Lucci says she’s grateful. In fact, she says, “Prayers of gratitude are how I begin and end each day.”
She is particularly grateful for becoming a mother to her two adult children, and to the doctors who saved her son’s life when he was a newborn.
Lucci writes about gratitude for her long career. She was a keystone character on TV’s “All My Children,” and she learned a lot from older actors on the show, and from Agnes Nixon, the creator of it. She says she still keeps in touch with many of her former costars.
She is thankful for her mother’s caretakers, who stepped in when dementia struck. Grateful for more doctors, who did heart-saving work when Lucci had a clogged artery. Grateful for friends, opportunities, life, grandchildren, and a career that continues.
And she’s grateful for the love she shared with her husband, Helmut Huber, who died nearly four years ago. Grateful for the chance to grieve, to heal, and to continue.
And yet, she says of her husband: “He was never timid, but I know he was afraid at the end, and that kills me down to my soul.”
“It’s been 15 years since Erica Kane and I parted ways,” says author Susan Lucci (with Laura Morton), and she says that people still approach her to confirm or deny rumors of the show’s resurrection. There’s still no answer to that here (sorry, fans), but what you’ll find inside “La Lucci” is still exceptionally generous.
If this book were just filled with stories, you’d like it just fine. If it was only about Lucci’s faith and her gratitude – words that happen to appear very frequently here – you’d still like reading it. But Lucci tells her stories of family, children and “All My Children,” while also offering help to couples who’ve endured miscarriage, women who’ve had heart problems, and widow(ers) who are spinning and need the kindness of someone who’s lived loss, too.
These are the other things you’ll find in “La Lucci,” in a voice you’ll hear in your head, if you spent your lunch hours glued to the TV back in the day. It’s a comfortable, fun read for fans. It’s a story you’ll love.
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