Text reprinted from Col. Cammermeyer's Wiki Entry.....
Margarethe "Grethe" Cammermeyer (born March 24, 1942) served as a
colonel in the
Washington National Guard and became a
gay rights activist. Born in
Oslo, Norway, she became a United States citizen in 1960. In 1961 she joined the
Army Nurse Corps as a student. She received a
B.S. in Nursing in 1963 from the
University of Maryland. At the
University of Washington School of Nursing, she earned a master's degree in 1976 and a Ph.D. in 1991.
She had a 15-year marriage to a man and they had four sons. In 1988, when she was 46, she met her partner, Diane Divelbess.
In 1989, responding to a question during a routine security clearance interview, she disclosed that she is a
lesbian. The National Guard began
military discharge proceedings against her. On June 11, 1992, she was honorably discharged. Cammermeyer filed a lawsuit against the decision in
civil court. In June 1994, Judge
Thomas Zilly of the
United States District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled that her discharge and the ban on gays and lesbians serving in the military were unconstitutional. She returned to the National Guard and served as one of the few openly gay or lesbian people in the U.S. military while the "
don't ask don't tell" policy was in effect, until her retirement in 1997.
A television movie about Cammermeyer's story,
Serving in Silence, was made in 1995, with
Glenn Close starring as Cammermeyer. Its content was largely taken from Cammermeyer's autobiography of the same name.
After retirement, Cammermeyer ran for the
United States Congress in
Washington's 2nd congressional district in 1998. She won the
Democratic primary, but lost in the general election to
Republican incumbent
Jack Metcalf.
In June 2010, she was appointed to the
Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, a committee which is appointed by the
United States Secretary of Defense and which reports to the
United States Department of Defense.
[1] The
Point Foundation announced plans to honor Cammermeyer with its Point Legend Award in April 2011.
[2]
In 2012, after same-sex marriage was legalized in Washington state, Cammermeyer and her partner Diane Divelbess became the first same-sex couple to get a license in
Island County.
[3]
