Monday, February 27, 2012

Photo of gay Marine kissing boyfriend receives flood of support

A photo of a gay Marine locked in a passionate welcome home kiss with his boyfriend has gone viral, sparking a groundswell of support from backers of the military's policy of allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the military.

The photo, which shows Sgt. Brandon Morgan locking lips with partner Dalan Wells during a recent homecoming in Hawaii, was posted to a Gay Marines Facebook page on Saturday.

Since then, the shot has received tens of thousands of "likes," shares and comments, prompting the young soldier to send a grateful message to all of his supporters.

"To everyone who has responded in a positive way. My partner and I want to say thank you," the blog Joe. My. God. quoted Morgan as saying.

"We didn't do this to get famous, or something like that we did this cause after 3 deployments and four years knowing each other, we finally told each other how we felt."

"As for the whole PDA and kissing slash hugging in uniform...it was a homecoming…the Sergeants Major, Captains, Majors, and Colonels around us didn't care..." he wrote, before singing off with a "Semper Fi," the Marine Corps motto.

"As a gay veteran that pic drew tears to my eyes," one commenter wrote on Facebook. "Never in my wildest dreams would I ever think I would see this lifetime."

Not all of the comments were supportive. Some posters said they felt the picture was inappropriate or disapproved of the end of "Don't ask, Don't tell."

The photo recalled a shot from December that showed two female Navy petty officers sharing a traditional "first kiss" on a Virginia pier after one of them returned from 80 days at sea.

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