Fort Benning holds first LGBT Pride celebration

When a man opened fire in a gay nightclub in Orlando two weeks ago and killed 49 people, Brig. Gen. Tammy Smith responded by offering to help organize an LGBT Pride Month event at Fort Benning.

On Monday morning, about 75 soldiers and civilians — including Maneuver Center of Excellence commander Maj. Gen. Eric Wesley, his wife Cindy and Smith’s wife Tracey — attended the LGBT Pride Month celebration on main post.

“As a general officer, I have never initiated a Pride event anywhere,” Smith told the audience. “I have supported many, but I have never initiated one. I was so moved by what happened in the Pulse nightclub, I thought it appropriate that there be an opportunity for people to come together to celebrate inclusion and for there to be a place to grieve for the LGBT part of that horrific event.”

Smith, an Oregon native with more than three decades of service as an Army reservist, was most recently commander of the 98^th Training Division at Fort Benning. She has been reassigned to 8^th Army in Korea where she will oversee the moving of the headquarters.

In the last five years, the military has gone from a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law to embracing the diversity of its members, Smith said. She was the Army’s first openly gay general officer, spending the first 25 years of her career hiding her sexuality to avoid being discharged.

“Many of us loved the values of our institution so much that we were willing to set aside who we were,” Smith said.

What is happening now makes the Army a more inclusive culture, Smith said.

“Being out is not a statement of sexual orientation,” Smith said. “It is a statement of your family composition.”

But why celebrate LGBT Pride Month on an Army post?

“Because, really, why do we need to know about others’ personal lives?” she said. “And I have to say that Pride is not about anyone’s personal life. It is a celebration of authenticity.

“We celebrate Pride because the military is an organization that values its people. We celebrate because we value being a meritocracy where everyone who works hard, leads from the front and believes in Army values has an equal chance to be successful and rewarded with increased responsibility. We celebrate Pride because we want to be an organization that attracts and retains the best all-volunteer force on the planet. ... We celebrate Pride for all the reasons we celebrate any other diversity group because we value our differences.”

Her comments impressed Wesley, who spoke briefly at the end of the program.

“There’s an incredible lesson in leadership as it relates to authenticity,” Wesley said. “One of the things I like to share with those I have mentored over time: Authentic leadership is indispensable for effective leadership. As a leader, you are communicating who you are to all of your subordinates. And the ‘who’ can have no fractions in it, no fracture. You talk about the word integrity and you go back and look at the roots of the word, it comes from integer, which is whole. And there can be no hidden fracture or hidden idea about our leaders because we are fully transparent because we breed trust.”

Danny Ingram was in the crowd listening to Smith’s talk. The words hit close to home for the leader of the American Veterans for Equal Rights, an advocacy organization reconized by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He was one of about 18,000 soldiers discharged from the Army for being gay during the enforcement of “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

The fact that he was listening to Smith talk about LGBT rights at Fort Benning made a strong impression on him.

“It was very powerful to me because every time I come back to Fort Benning it is like coming home,” said Ingram, who was discharged 22 years ago. “I didn’t know that we would ever come this far.”

This story was originally published June 27, 2016 at 5:39 PM with the headline "Fort Benning holds first LGBT Pride celebration."