Fort Bragg Chapel Welcomes Homosexuality

"Lt. Col. Heather Mack and her wife, Ashley Broadway, who initially was barred from membership in the Fort Bragg Officers' Spouses Club before the group relented earlier this year, and Staff Sgt. Tracy Johnson, the first same-sex war widow in the US Military, also attended. Johnson's wife, Staff Sgt. Donna Johnson, was killed in Afghanistan in 2012."
"Fort Bragg Chapel Holds First Same-Sex Ceremony" , Drew Brooks, Fayetteville Observer 12/21/13


There's a thing that just happened that makes us proud. THE VERY FIRST same-sex commitment ceremony at the Fort Bragg Chapel. That's right. You heard it right here, folks. According to the Fayetteville Observer, monogamous homosexuality has arrived at the Center of the Universe.

Picture by Elizabeth Franz, Fayetteville Observer 12/21/13

Very handsomely, I might add.

But all is not sunshine and rainbows.

Hidden in the article about this moving and real life (seriously, the proposal story is quoted as...

That's when Toven asked Taylor to check his stocking. Inside was a card and a small box. 

I open it and I look at Daniel and he's on one knee," Taylor recalled. Taylor said he was sleep-deprived and hadn't eaten all day. Suddenly, he was overcome with emotion. 

"I said, 'I think I'm going to vomit," Taylor said. "It was not one of my finest moments in life."

It doesn't get more real, right?!) triumph of men in the military who love both men AND the military, we read about the Officer's Spouse Club grudgingly admitting only THIS YEAR aka 2013 the wife of a Lt Colonel. 

Is it only me? I feel so regressive when I mention someone by the rank of their partner. I'm sure Ms. Broadway is a kick-butt person in her own right, but the honest truth here is that we spouses are subject to some specific standards and in-group/out-group dynamics based on mostly THAT. Our worth is measured in how many bars and chevrons grace our lovers' chest. 

This being so, it is unconscionable that the legal partner or common-law partner of a person who has attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel should be denied entry into a society of her peers. I am livid that this was ever in question. I commend the people in the Fort Bragg Officers' Spouses Club that must have opposed the exclusion because, really, it would much less chic to be known as the Fort Bragg Officers' (With A Penis) Spouses Club. And even then, it wouldn't stop the handsome newlywed pictured above from knock-knock-knocking at the door. 

Happily, the weather and the Officers' Spouses Club seems warm and welcoming for now in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Next, we hope for a sea-change in the state legislature to enable full marriage equality. We'll keep you posted on where the wind is blowing on that one, pals!