Saturday, November 2, 2013

West Point Set To Host First Male Gay Wedding

Nearly a year after it hosted its first lesbian wedding, West Point on Saturday will play host to its first wedding between two men.
The men are West Point graduates Larry Choate III, class of 2009, and Daniel Lennox, class of 2007.
The couple will marry at the U.S. Military Academy's Cadet Chapel in New York.
“It's maybe one more barrier that's pushed over a little bit, or maybe one more glass ceiling that's shattered that makes it easier for the next couple,” Choate was quoted as saying by the AP on Friday.
Last December, Brenda Sue Fulton and Penelope Gnesis became the first gay couple to marry at the Cadet Chapel. Fulton, a West Point graduate, serves as a presidential appointee to the West Point Board of Visitors and played a prominent role in the repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.”
Choate, 27, and Lennox, 28, stressed that their wedding would be like that of any other couple wed in the chapel.
“It's going to be just like every other wedding there,” Choate said, “except probably a lot smaller and no bride.”

According to a post on Choate's blog, the two men became engaged in March of this year, soon after Lennox's return from a year-long deployment in Afghanistan.
In a post from earlier this week, Choate writes about the excitement he and Lennox experienced after being handed their marriage license from a clerk in New York:
It was just a white paper form that came out of their laserjet printer and was embossed with the seal of the state of NY. It's real world value is next to nothing. But to us it's the official, legal recognition of our new life together. It's everything so many advocates and activists have devoted their lives to making possible.

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