37 Facts About Stephen Snyder-Hill

Stephen Snyder-Hill is an American soldier, author, lecturer, and LGBT rights activist who served under the United States Army's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy and fought against the Defense of Marriage Act in collaboration with Freedom to Marry and the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

Stephen Snyder-Hill is author of the book Soldier of Change which covers the media frenzy associated with his activism and his life as gay in the army.

Stephen Snyder-Hill writes in his book Soldier of Change: From the Closet to the Forefront of the Gay Rights Movement that as a child it bothered him, reinforcing the idea that it was wrong to be gay.

Stephen Snyder-Hill uses this as an example of "trusting the power of your voice" and how it can change hearts and minds.

Stephen Snyder-Hill later discusses how a visit to Dachau when he lived in Germany changed his life.

Stephen Snyder-Hill did not understand at the time what that meant, but later while in college he started wearing gay pride symbols and one of them was the pink triangle with the inscription "Silence = Death".

Stephen Snyder-Hill then started speaking out while in college at Ohio State University.

Stephen Snyder-Hill was out during college, but went back into the closet when he decided to re-join the US Army Reserve in March 2001.

Stephen Snyder-Hill served thirty-one years in the United States Army and Army Reserve in two stints, achieving the rank of major and earning the Meritorious Service Medal.

Stephen Snyder-Hill joined the army in 1988 at the age of 19, serving on active duty in Germany.

Stephen Snyder-Hill fought in the first Gulf War in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait before his honorable discharge in 1996.

Stephen Snyder-Hill was deployed to Iraq in support of Operation New Dawn in 2010.

On September 22,2011, at a Republican Party presidential debate in Orlando, Florida, before the 2012 US Presidential Election, debate moderator Megyn Kelly directed to presidential hopeful Rick Santorum a question via a YouTube video message posed by Stephen Snyder-Hill, who was then serving in the US Army in Iraq.

Stephen Snyder-Hill asked whether the candidates' presidencies would "circumvent the progress that's been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military".

Stephen Snyder-Hill's story was featured on the front page of the LA Times on December 29,2013.

Stephen Snyder-Hill uses the tagline "Trust the Power of your Voice" in speaking with universities and groups across the nation.

Stephen Snyder-Hill did a TEDx Talk at Ohio State University in 2015 to a crowd of more than 4,000 people that ended in a standing ovation.

Stephen Snyder-Hill wrote a book, Soldier of Change: From the Closet to the Forefront of the Gay Rights Movement, with a foreword by George Takei, is described by its publisher as the first memoir by military personnel about serving under the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.

In 2019, it was reported that Stephen Snyder-Hill was in the process of writing his second book.

In 1995, Stephen Snyder-Hill visited the Ohio State University student health center.

Stephen Snyder-Hill was assigned physician Dr Richard Strauss, who he claimed to the university officials abused him.

Stephen Snyder-Hill reported it to the university the day after it happened.

Stephen Snyder-Hill reported this all to the Head of Student Services Dr Ted W Grace.

Stephen Snyder-Hill was unhappy with this conclusion, but was not provided any appeal opportunity or instruction on who else he could complain to.

Stephen Snyder-Hill asked Dr Grace to put all this to him in writing; at first there was silence on the phone, but then Dr Grace did follow up.

Stephen Snyder-Hill was never fired from his job and was allowed to retire with emeritus status.

Stephen Snyder-Hill requested his original complaint back from the 1990s and realized this was the same doctor.

Stephen Snyder-Hill filed a lawsuit against OSU with other plaintiffs in 2018.

Stephen Snyder-Hill filed a lawsuit in the Court of Claims against Ohio State University for breaking public records law.

Stephen Snyder-Hill, not having a legal background, prose crafted a legal argument contradicting every one of the Universities points.

Stephen Snyder-Hill questioned the universities use of 'trauma informed care' as their justification for why they refused to release information.

Stephen Snyder-Hill mentioned that the head of their human resources sent a text to his husband mistakenly, and in that text asked if 'we had found the letter of complaint, she was curious.

Stephen Snyder-Hill complained to the Court that OSU's attorney tried to confuse the process by telling him that he wasn't allowed to respond to the Court.

Stephen Snyder-Hill promptly responded that this explanation didn't make any sense, and that he was "tired of being lied to" by the university.

In 2020, Stephen Snyder-Hill filed an Ohio State Medical Board complaint against both Dr Ted Grace and OSU's current President Dr Michael Drake.

Stephen Snyder-Hill questioned OSU's decision to release Strauss's Personnel file early in the investigation.

Stephen Snyder-Hill spoke publicly about this and laid out this argument to the Ohio Court of Claims.