(Photo by Jennifer Cintron)
(Photo by Mikey Tapscott)
Such a wonderful night for us, and it’s received so much attention on Facebook (here and here), Reddit, imgur, BuzzFeed, Gawker, and Towleroad! Really, the only thing on my mind was making it a memorable and unforgettable night for Ben. Thank you all for the well wishes!!
In May 2013, I will finish my assignment at Marine Corps University and execute orders to my next duty station. I am hoping to be assigned to Japan, but this is going to bring with it many challenges in terms of my relationship with Ben. We are going to document all of the work as we face this challenge, to include people we talk to, the documents we need, the legal issues we will face with DOMA, and post some tips for those who will inevitably follow in our path later. I’ll be tagging those posts specially so you can find them at a glance, and Ben will even be writing some. Stay tuned to follow the tales of our (mis)adventures!
My big coming out was at the Pentagon last June at the first official LGBT Pride Month event. You can check out the video at C-SPAN (my part begins at 36:20). Still, on this day, I thought I would take a minute to express my pride in those fellow service members–both LGBT and our straight allies–who express their support for equality.
I will also take a brief moment to encourage those who are on the fence to come out. It’s a personal decision, to be sure, but it’s a decision that is based on integrity rather than fear. Coming out is not only personally liberating, but it’s an inspiration to those around you who need to know that we’re here, in every community, in every family, and deserve exactly the same rights to live our lives and pursue our dreams.
This week I will relinquish command of my company in preparation of my move to the East Coast for my next assignment as a student at the Expeditionary Warfare School in Quantico, Virginia. As I prepare to move, I have taken some time to reflect on my year in command and think about what will come next.
In the locker room at my office the other day, an unused locker’s doors were open, and I saw a bumper sticker that was affixed to one of the doors. It said, “Keep the Queens Out of the Marines.” I’ve never referred to myself as a queen. It’s not that I don’t like it, I just don’t relate to the term. I understand that some gays do, but not all of us. Nevertheless, in that moment, I was a queen, and I was unwelcome.
Whenever opponents of open gay service in the military are asked why they favor “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) (or an outright ban on gays serving in the military), they respond that sexuality has no place in the military, and they couldn’t be more wrong. As long as there are humans serving in the military, sexuality will have a place there as well. Even a cursory glance at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs shows that sexuality plays a role in the human condition. It plays a role in every level of this pyramid, yet opponents of gay service ignore the role sexuality plays in all of our lives, starting with their own.
Continue reading “On sexuality, ignorance, and sex in the showers”
Last week’s blog posts have drawn a lot of attention from a lot of people. Many people came across of it from Rachel Maddow on Twitter, this post on AMERICAblog Gay and Andy Towle via this entry on his blog, Towleroad. The story was sent to Michelangelo Signorile and he asked me to appear on his show on Tuesday.
You can download or listen to a recording of the interview here (via Dropbox, right-click to download).
As I’ve been saying for the past several days, the response to my blog posts last week has been incredible. I am absolutely touched and inspired by all the positive comments I’ve received and continue to receive. I think at this point there are over 500 positive comments on the various pages, and you can see the wide range of people who have been touched by this story. I mentioned in a previous post that I wasn’t going to post negative comments. Surprisingly there have been few, and none worth your time even to read.
I’ll be on Sirius XM’s OutQ 108 today at 3:30 EST with Michelangelo Signorile, talking about my recent blog post about taking a date to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball for the first time following repeal of DADT.
I have spent most of my career being single. Anyone who has been in a relationship with a Marine knows it’s difficult. Long hours, short-notice trips, weeks in the field, months on deployment, weekends/holidays/birthdays missed–these affect all of us. DADT just added another complex layer to an already difficult endeavor. For someone to be in a relationship with me, he would be to required accept the fact that I was going to lie about who he was if I mentioned him at all. When asked by commanders and coworkers if I was married, I’d say no even if we lived together. It is the epitome of a double life: on the one hand there is a special person who makes the unique challenges of your life remotely bearable, while at the same time you’re denying to anyone interested that he even exists. If you do let down long enough to go out in public together, your head is on a swivel, always looking out for anyone who may see you doing something that could get you in trouble. Even going to the gym could be a challenge–you want to spend the time together as a couple, but if there are Marines at the same gym, you’re just “workout buddies” and it becomes even worse: he has to stand there while you deny your relationship in front of his face. How many times can you do that before you just give up trying? I have no idea what that must have felt like for the men I dated. I do know that it killed a piece of me every time I had to do it.
Continue reading “On Marines, equality, and my date to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball (Part 3)”
Work in Progress 