GI Rights Network
The GI Rights Network is a consortium of lawyers and counselors who operate the GI Rights Hotline, a confidential service for those in the military or considering joining the military. The GI Rights Network attempts to dissuade potential recruits from joining the military and to provide information for those in the military seeking a discharge, information on how to disobey orders, or information on how to exit military service in another way. 1 2 3
Contents
The GI Rights Network is in part operated by lawyers in the radical-left National Lawyers Guild and receives donations through ActBlue Charities, a pass-through organization created to facilitate donations to left-of-center charitable advocacy groups. 4 5
History and Activities
The GI Rights Network is a private organization founded in 1994 that offers private counseling through its GI Rights Hotline to those in the military or considering the military, particularly to advise them on when to disobey orders that the military personnel consider unlawful or immoral. Other advertised subjects include information on different types of discharges from military service for those seeking to quit, including conscientious objection, AWOL (absent without leave), and harassment and discrimination. 1 2
GI Rights Network argues it is a misconception that members of the military are not allowed to be political or participate in activism. 1
GI Rights Network also attempts to persuade people not to join the military, arguing that “military experience hurts, rather than helps, your search for a job,” and warns that a military career has “a higher incidence of injury or death than most jobs.” 3
GI Rights Hotline is located in North Carolina and has branches in California, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. 6
In September 2025, GI Rights Network was featured in left-of-center literature that promoted services for military personnel seeking legal advice on issues like “refusing illegal orders” from President Donald Trump. 7
According to NBC Los Angeles, calls to the GI Rights Hotline increased in June 2025 after President Trump ordered a mobilization of the National Guard and U.S. Marines in Los Angeles in response to anti-immigration enforcement riots in the city. According to a GI Rights Hotline counselor, the hotline typically receives 200 calls a month but received 50 calls in a single day following the Los Angeles deployment. 8
GI Rights Network is operated by a coalition of non-governmental organizations and claims to be staffed by counselors who are veterans and lawyers. Organizations that operate the hotline include the Quaker House in Fayetteville, North Carolina; the Center on Conscience and War; and attorneys from the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild, a radical-left association of attorneys, law students, legal workers, and jailhouse lawyers which at different times has been alleged to have ties to the Communist Party and the sometimes violent Antifa movement. 2 5
Partners
GI Rights Network directs callers to other left-of-center organizations that provide services to military personnel, including Courage to Resist, an organization that “supports military objectors to illegal war and occupation and the policies of empire,” including what it called the “occupation in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere”; the National Network Opposing Militarization of Youth; OutServe-SLDN (now part of Modern Military Association of America), which represents military members who identify as LGBT; Veterans for Peace; and About Face: Veterans Against the War, which advocated against the War on Terror. 9
People
As of 2025, GI Rights Network had roughly 20 counselors for its GI Rights Hotline. Counselors included Bill Galvin and Titu Peachy, conscientious objectors in the Vietnam War; Maria Santelli; and Leonore Yeager. 10
Financials
GI Rights Network receives donations through ActBlue Charities, a pass-through organization created to facilitate donations to left-of-center charitable advocacy groups. 4