A Message from Our Executive Director to Our 2025 Supporters, Volunteers, and Staff.

To Our Valued Members,

As we close out the year, I want to take a moment to thank you, our members, supporters, volunteers, and partners, for being part of the Modern Military community. This year demanded a great deal from all of us. It forced us to be adaptable, persistent, and to band together around a shared commitment.

2025 has been marked by renewed and serious challenges for the LGBTQ+ military and veteran community. The reinstatement of a ban on transgender individuals serving openly in the military and the removal of protection and healthcare for our transgender youth met with the broader national climate surrounding the community has created a culture of fear, uncertainty, and disruption. 

Let me be clear: Modern Military stands firmly with transgender individuals and transgender service. We are actively fighting policies that undermine readiness, harm careers, and deny people the dignity and care they deserve.

Despite a seemingly impossible environment, though, Modern Military saw some major successes in 2025. 

• We wrapped up the first ever LGBTQ+ Veteran Mental health program through the VA’s Sergeant Fox Suicide Prevention grant, providing resources and education to over 1,200 individuals through outreach. 
• As part of the DC Mayor’s Office of Black LGBTQIA+ History Preservation Grant, Modern Military worked alongside the Center for Black Equity and the Rainbow History Project to archive the never before documented stories of Black LGBTQ+ veterans in our last issue of Modern Military Magazine.
• We hosted or attended over 75 individual meetings with lawmakers. These meetings directly resulted in the successes we had in the FY2026 NDAA. We have spent the year educating lawmakers on the nuances of our community and showing them through direct testimony how anti-LGBTQ+ policies impact real families. We were able to stave off countless harmful policies, while also using your personal stories to impact real change within the DoD.

2026 will bring new challenges, ones that we haven’t faced as a community in decades. The work will require clarity, courage, and most of all togetherness. It will take all of us to combat the harmful policies that are to come while continuing to push back on policies like the ban on transgender service and healthcare for our trans and gender diverse dependents. 

To our members, partners, donors, and all who have contributed to Modern Military this past year, you helped build and shape this organization, and for that we thank you. 

Modern Military continues to be the nation’s largest voice for the LGBTQ+ community, and I am dedicated to making sure that your voices continue to be heard.

I am grateful to move into the new year alongside every member of this community, and I look forward to what we will accomplish together. 

With much appreciation and determination, 
Ashley Carothers
Executive Director