Vanguard - New York -The Department of Defence, in a first-of-its-kind move,
will allow active duty members of all branches of the U.S. military to
don their service uniforms while marching in an upcoming San Diego gay
pride parade, event organisers said.
The move, confirmed in an internal defence memo, marks the first time
the military has granted such blanket permission since the September
repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’’ policy, under which gay
individuals were allowed to serve in the military only if they did not
divulge their sexual orientation.
“It is our understanding that event organizers plan to have a portion
of the parade dedicated to military members,’’ Deputy Assistant
Secretary of Defence for Community and Public Outreach Rene Bardorf
wrote in an internal memo.
“We further understand organizers are encouraging service members to
seek their commander’s approval to march in uniform and to display their
pride,’’ Bardorf wrote.
Citing national media attention to the issue, Bardorf granted
approval for service members to participate, but limited that approval
in scope to the 2012 San Diego Pride Parade.
San Diego has a large military presence due to its naval base and the nearby Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.
Nearly 400 military members have already signed up to march in the parade, according to organisers Diego LGBT Pride.
Many more are expected to participate in the military parade after
the announcement went public, Fernando Lopez, the director of public
affairs for San Diego LGBT Pride, said.
More than 50,000 people are expected to attend the weekend festivities overall, organizers said.
“We are hopeful that those who have feared coming to share in the joy
of Pride out of concern for losing their military careers will be able
to finally celebrate their full and complete selves,’’ San Diego LGBT
Pride said in a statement.
In the past, only armed services veterans, not those on active duty, were allowed to wear their uniforms at gay pride parades.
Commanders could give permission to individuals to take part in such
events in uniform but no blanket permission had previously been issued,
Lopez said.
The approval for active service members of the Army, Marine Corps,
Navy and Air Force to participate in the gay pride parade in uniform is
the latest of a string of milestones following the repeal of “Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell.”
The U.S. military celebrated gay pride month at the Pentagon for the
first time last month, an event that other federal agencies like the CIA
had been celebrating for years.
Under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, more than 14,500 U.S.
service members were thrown out of the military since the rule went into
effect in 1993, according to the Service members Legal Defense Network.
Many senior members of the military had publicly warned against
repealing the ban in wartime, saying it could hurt cohesion of troops or
undermine morale. The Pentagon said in May that there had been no such
impact.
The end of the policy has come at a time of steadily increasing public support for same-sex marriage.
The Gallup polling organization said in a recent survey that half of American adults are now in favour of gay marriage.
Also in May, President Barack Obama said he believes same-sex couples
should be allowed to marry, and the nation’s largest civil rights
group, the NAACP, later endorsed gay marriage, saying the fight for gay
rights was a civil rights issue
