John C. Ames
MEA Co-chair
 John
attended California State University, Long Beach, Long
Beach CA where he participated in the Air Force ROTC
program. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant
in the U.S. Air Force in May 1985 and was assigned to
the 14th Flying Training Wing, Columbus Air Force Base,
MS where he was the acting Deputy Chief of Public Affairs.
His next duty station would be with the 3800th Air Base
Wing, Maxwell Air Force Base, AL where he served as
the Deputy Chief of Public Affairs. While a First Lieutenant
stationed at Maxwell AFB he was selected and attended
Squadron Officers School, an achievement made by less
than 10 percent of officers with his time and rank in
service.
First Lieutenant Ames’ next assignment was to
Dyess Air Force Base, TX home of the B-1B Lancers. During
this assignment he won 15th Air Force’s Outstanding
Public Affairs Company Grade Officer of the Year Award
for 1989. While at Dyess AFB he was selected for and
sent on temporary duty as the Military Press Attaché
to the U.S. Embassy in the Republic of Honduras. Captain
Ames’ last duty station while on active duty would
be Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea where he was the
Deputy Director for 7th Air Force Office of Public Affairs.
In 1992 Captain Ames was honorably discharge from active
duty. In 2005 he finished his 14 year commitment to
the U.S. Air Force’s Individual Ready Reserves.
Since leaving the military John has been an accounts
manager, customer service and operations supervisor
for various logistics companies. He has also worked
in the information technology field as a business analyst
and systems engineer. He currently is a service manger
for a fortune 500 company.
John has done volunteer work throughout his life. It
wasn't’t until his discharge from active duty
that he could do volunteer work on the issues he was
most passionate about, that being equal rights for is
gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender brothers and
sisters.
John is a member of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation (GLAAD), Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Servicemembers
Legal Defense Network (SLDN), Equality Texas, League
of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)and the Dallas
Gay and Lesbian Alliance (DGLA).
John's first volunteer work in the GLBT community was
with The Experience (a self empowerment workshop for
GLBT people) and help to bring this workshop to Dallas
over the next year and a half.
He has served on the Human Rights Campaign’s
National Coming Out Day’s Steering Committee of
Dallas/Ft. Worth, co-chaired the first same-sex marriage
show in the nation, was the youth program's coordinator
and advisor for DGLA’s OutYouth - Dallas and has
been on the board of directors for Leadership Lambda.
He is the past president of the American Veterans for
Equal Rights - North Texas Chapter.
He is currently on the board of directors for the Dallas
Gay and Lesbian Alliance (having been re-elect for his
sixth term) and is co-chair of the Military Equality
Alliance.
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