📺 ODVA comments: "forcing those loopholes closed"
Logan M. Isaac: My name is Logan M. Isaac. I was in the Army 2000-2006, got out as an E5 paratrooper and Forward Observer for the artillery. When I got out I started pursuing higher education and used VA services across a couple of different states. Landed here about a year ago.
I'm really interested in the question of why some vets aren't self-identifying, and I want to propose that there's another way to think about suicide prevention that isn't getting enough exposure — and that's civil rights, from the federal level on down. Our civil rights as veterans, service members, former members, and military dependents are a hodgepodge of poorly enforced statutes and municipal codes. Here in the state of Oregon, we are not protected — the closest we come is employment, under ORS 659A.082. Our neighbor to the south, California, recognizes military families as a fully protected class. At the federal level as well, veterans and military families haven't asserted those rights — they don't expect it, or we're sometimes surprised to learn that employment discrimination and housing discrimination is occurring, but we keep it silent, because we've been taught to shut up and drive on.
I think human dignity is the missing link, I suppose, for suicide prevention. I'd like to see Oregon come up to speed with California, and also encourage and advocate at the federal level for not just civil rights to be passed, but for the laws that do protect us to be enforced. For example: the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 included an entire section — Section 4712 — that extended similar protections to service members and their families, up to five years after discharge. The Department of Justice, at the federal level, does not know about this law. It has never enforced it, and its agents have no idea what it is when I've called and asked for information. But it's been in place since 2009, and we still haven't gotten hate crimes protections for our community, because individuals who are targeted — usually by what we'll call domestic terrorists — domestic-terrorism charges are easier to get a confession or a conviction on. But hate crimes statutes are explicitly intended to protect our entire community. So individuals are getting spot-check protections, but our community as a whole is falling through the loopholes.
I don't know how much time I have left, and I'll try to avoid identifying information, but — again, at the federal level, I'm only mentioning the federal because Oregon doesn't have a similar protection — it's called VEVRAA, and it's supposed to extend employment protections to veterans. However, its enforcement agency, the OFCCP, receives more complaints from veterans than any other complainant, and has since 2004. More veterans are complaining of employment discrimination to the Department of Labor than any other complainant, but veterans' VEVRAA complaints are receiving the lowest record of findings of merit — essentially, the Department of Labor doesn't believe veterans when they complain of employment discrimination. Roughly 13% since 2004 have come from the state of Oregon, because Oregon does not protect veterans from employment discrimination. Oregon does not protect from hate crimes or bias incidents either, on paper.
I'd like to see that closed, and I'd like to see Oregon be an example for the federal level — to not just put these protections in law, as California has, but to advocate for comprehensive enforcement of veterans' and service members' civil rights. This should include the EEOC, which excludes veterans from its protection, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, which also excludes veterans.
So, for example — income discrimination. [Committee member: "You have one more minute."] Thank you. I know a veteran who used his VA disability income to apply for an apartment. The apartment manager was very formal, very "T's crossed and I's dotted" — that landlord didn't believe a federal document, the VA compensation letter, which I also receive. He held up that application for a highly sought-after apartment. That represents income discrimination, and there's no protection. But I think it's clear on its face that examples like these are affecting veterans every day, and I would like to think that Americans and Oregonians are willing to step up to the plate and start closing those loopholes. Thank you very much.
Robert Van Voorhis (Vice Chair): [inaudible in the original captions]
Logan M. Isaac: If I could respond — I think what happened was atrocious. My father is a Vietnam vet. He was on the Enterprise, for an enlistment he volunteered for to avoid the infantry. He never hid it from me or anybody in our family, but he also didn't talk about it. And I think what happens with my generation — the pendulum has swung, so "thank you for your service" has become, for me and most of the vets I talk to — which are mostly the kind of vets that [name unclear, captions read "Tina"] works with — a hollow sentiment. It acts to just continue to conceal the fact that we don't know what to do with veterans, and we haven't.
Because it's a passable identity, I'll become a civilian and try to get whatever benefits I should be deserving. I won't get into any of my personal case stuff here, but when civilians find out, they'll say that I'm hard to work with, and they'll have all these excuses for not giving me equal treatment. And the only thing — the only facet — I think I have is the law. So I can't pursue anything in Oregon; there's a case I'm about to start in California, but it's incredibly subtle and sinister. And I don't think what happened to you has gone away — it's just changed form.
Robert Van Voorhis (Vice Chair): [remarks not captured in the original captions]
Logan M. Isaac: I was a trained researcher, and I've been a stay-at-home dad for five years — that's what gave me time. And now I'm ready to step up and start forcing those loopholes closed, if I have to.
Dr. Nakeia Daniels (ODVA Director): Logan, thank you — I just want to add on very quickly to what our Vice Chair shared. About our veterans: for those of us who are younger veterans — myself included, I'm a veteran, and I did not identify as one at the beginning; I have a hard time identifying myself even now — but women veterans, LGBTQ+ veterans also have challenges, and it's something we should talk more about and do more about. We do have advocacy here, but there is a statewide issue in that regard, and a national issue in that regard. So I want to acknowledge that that is absolutely true.
You mentioned civil rights — I would very much like to, either myself or someone on my team, follow up with you on that. But I'll share with you quickly — and this isn't [phrase unclear] — it's just for awareness: there is a Civil Rights Division within the Department of Justice, a small shop, but they do work, and they actually have a new "hate crime" hotline that I can try to get information to you about. My team and I are also closely working with the Employment Department, and I'm happy to bring up — they may well be aware — but I'm happy to bring up in my next meeting with the Director some of the employment discrimination points you made.
I can say that my son is a veteran, and [phrase unclear, captions read "to at that isso"] finding positions that take them and tell them that they're a veteran — everybody here knows that's absolutely not supposed to be the case. So — didn't mean to share too much personally, but just to let you know: these are very important points, and I appreciate that.
Logan M. Isaac: If I may, just a closing remark: I learned, as a white, cis-het[ero] male evangelical, that bias and injustice are only as strong as their weakest link. The more I spoke up as a veteran, the more I was told to decenter myself — as a white guy, as cis, as masculine-presenting. But — as Martin [Luther King Jr.] said, "a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere."¹ And if there's a Black veteran, and say that landlord just didn't want to rent to Black people, they could fully legally say every veteran is a baby killer, and that individual would have no recourse. So — a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere, and I think it begins and ends with better friends (?) here in our state. Thank you for letting me go on.
Dr. Nakeia Daniels (ODVA Director): I appreciate that — thank you, Logan.
¹ King's actual formulation in "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
