One can make a tax-deductible donation to Call To Duty online through our fiscal agent, Liberty Education Forum, a 501c3 non-profit organization, by clicking on those words in the "Would you like to contribute?" box on the middle-left side of the website.
The Call to Duty Tour is a platform for renewed debate on the merits of the DADT policy in the 21st century featuring the largely unheard voices of young service members who embody the reality of DADT in today’s armed forces and its impact on the nation’s security.
The first CTD Tour launched on February 21st, 2006, the day after President’s Day, at Harvard University's JFK School of Government. The Tour involves speaking engagements, meetings, and debates at colleges, universities, and Veteran Service Organizations over a seven week period, ending April 7th.
The past year has seen monumental strides on all fronts in the movement to lift the ban on gays serving openly in the military. Log Cabin Republicans and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network have initiated two historic legal challenges in federal court to challenge the constitutionality of the DADT policy. Congressman Marty Meehan (D-MA) and over 100 cosponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a bill, the Military Readiness Enhancement Act (HR 1059), to repeal the law that mandates the ban. The military’s mounting recruiting and retention problems have risen to national attention, and new data have recently shown that the American public now favors lifting the ban. The culmination of these points makes the chosen time period ideal for CTD to continue the current wave of momentum toward lifting the ban.
HR 1059 is the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, a bill in the House introduced in March 2005 by Marty Meehan (D-MA) to repeal the DADT law.
HR 1059 currently has over 100 co-sponsors, and is in need of more support to make it out of committee.
We plan to visit a variety of schools across the country: conservative and liberal, private and public, military and civilian. The list of those schools is shown elsewhere on the website.
Some of the more liberal schools were chosen for the sake of publicity and prestige. The majority of the schools chosen are traditionally conservative schools in conservative parts of the country; these schools were chosen to expose conservative audiences to the issues and arguments surrounding DADT.
CTD is funded primarily through private donations and grants from non-profit foundations and organizations.
Depending on the success of the spring 2006 Tour and on public interest in CTD, a subsequent Tour may be developed.
CTD is currently evaluating the merits of establishing itself as an ongoing organization with a different focus and strategy than existing organizations. Factors to be considered are public interest, availability of funding and resources, and the number of available staff and participants in the future.
Many colleges have been considered and all are possible in the future; however, the list we have compiled for this tour fits best with the intended purpose and scheduling logistics of the tour.