Several gay and lesbian Airmen who spoke to Air Force Magazine said they have become better wingmen since the fall of DADT, and are optimistic about a military where the LGBT community is better represented and accepted. “I wanted to show them I was a person just like they were.” “When you’re doing a mission together, you share a lot of yourself with your troops,” she said. It made me a better Airman because I was able to be open and transparent about my life,” said Jennifer Dane, an Air Force veteran who is now interim executive director of the Modern Military Association of America, the nation’s largest nonprofit advocating for LGBTQ service members and veterans. “I became a better supervisor because I was able to live up to the core values of the Air Force at that time. The policy formally ended in September 2011 after months of preparation within the Pentagon. 22, 2010, President Barack Obama signed legislation that led to the repeal of DADT, which for nearly two decades blocked openly gay personnel from serving in the military. Ten years after the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy began to phase out, gay and lesbian Airmen say there’s more the Department of the Air Force can do to support the LGBTQ community.
