Two female sailors share 1st Kiss

[DKStories]

My husband forwarded this link to me today and it's worth reading:

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/21/4137957/2-women-share-1st-kiss-at-us-navy.html

As a navy veteran, I can tell you that the Navy is full of traditions. Some are gross, some are boring, and some are downright sickening (yuck! I hate cremated ashes getting in my mouth during a burial at sea!). Most have some good foundations, and the traditions focused around a ship pulling into home port after a long deployment are some of the most poignant.

Sailors who had children born while on deployment get to see their new child for the first time.

Estranged loved ones are reunited..

While I was in the service, one of the traditions was the playing of a song over the ship's loudspeakers as we approached the pier. The night before we pulled in following our deployment to Operation Desert Storn, the crew chose "Mama, I'm Coming Home" by Ozzie Osbourne. The next day as we pulled in towards the pier, the loudspeakers blared out Neil Diamond's "Coming to America"

What happened? The Evangelican Christian Captain and Evangelical Christian Executive Officer refused to have 'a song by a satanist' played on their ship.

Now with that in mind, look at the linked article. Two female sailors won, in a lottery, the right to be the first couple reunited after the deployment. This has been a tradition in the United States Navy for decades, if not longer. Now lesbian and gay couples are a part of that tradition. No longer are they hidden, separate, unequal.

Once again, we should all thank President Barack Obama for leading the effort to make this happen. In the House of Representatives (back when Democrats were in charge) the vote was 250 to 175 for the repeal. All but 15 Democrats voted to repeal DOMA, and all but 15 Republicans voted to oppose the bill. In the Senate, it passed 65-31 with all but one Democrat being joined by 8 Republicans voting to pass the repeal. One Democrat abstained from the vote, and both Independent Senators voted FOR the repeal. In the Senate, it was Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins who led the effort to get the necessary Republican votes to make it pass, and it was John McCain who defended it to the bitter end (imagine - if was President now instead of Barack Obama, this would never have happened).

After the vote, it was again President Obama, this time joined by Robert Gates, Leon Panetta, and Admiral Mike Mullin who led the implementation and eventual certification to make the kiss in the article happen.

Know who are your friends, and who are not.

[colinian]

Newt Gingrinch would tell them that they are a danger to the security of the United States and should be court martialed.

Colin