Filmmaker Cindy Abel, Sacramentans Col. Patsy Thompson and her wife Barbara Brass, along with Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer discussed the film, Surviving the Silence. Surviving the Silence tells the story of two women in love who are surviving the oppression of a closeted military career. In 1992, Colonel Pat Thompson, a decorated army nurse, was only two years away from retirement when she was asked to preside over a military review board that eventually dismissed Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer for admitting she was a lesbian. Although Thompson had served her country with distinction for over thirty years—from conflict zones in Central America to working inside the Pentagon—that appointment was perhaps the hardest. In that moment, she had to protect her own life secret: that she too was a lesbian and had been living privately with her life partner, Barbara Brass, for many years. The way Thompson handled this conflict eventually led to a change in U.S. military policy.