American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER) is a U.S. non-profit organization which supports and advocates for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender veterans of the United States Armed Forces. It was founded by St. Sgt. (Army Reserve-Rtd.) Miriam Ben-Shalom in 1991 as the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Veterans of America.

History

Ben-Shalom, a lesbian Army Reserve officer who was discharged in 1975 by the military after it was revealed by a higher officer that she was lesbian, fought through the judicial system to retain her post. While initially successful, a higher federal Court of Appeals had ultmately reversed the decision and her gains in the judicial system. To help defend others from a similar fate, she established the GLBVA in 1991. By 1996, James Darby, a Chicago native who organized the Chicago chapter of GLBVA, became President of the organization, and was received by the contemporary White House Senior Adviser for Public Liaison, Richard Socarides

Richard Socarides

Richard Socarides is president of Equality Matters, a gay rights organization. He was a White House adviser under United States President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1999 in a variety of senior positions, including as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Adviser for Public Liaison...

, and Pentagon

Pentagon

In geometry, a pentagon is any five-sided polygon. A pentagon may be simple or self-intersecting. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagram is an example of a self-intersecting pentagon.- Regular pentagons :In a regular pentagon, all sides are equal in length and...

 officials in 1997. Under Darby's leadership, the "Lexington Declaration" called on U.S. president Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

 to lift the ban on homosexual members of the military.

On May 2, 2005, the GLBVA, under president Jim Donovan, changed its name to the American Veterans for Equal Rights. The organization was formally incorporated as a 501(c)19 organization under president Alan J Rogue (died 2010). The current president, Danny Ingram, leads AVER through the end and aftermath of Don't ask, don't tell

Don't ask, don't tell

"Don't ask, don't tell" was the official United States policy on homosexuals serving in the military from December 21, 1993 to September 20, 2011. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while...

as well as the new, less discriminatory policy against LGBT servicemembers.