West Point played host to the military academy’s first same-sex wedding featuring two active-duty officers. Captain Daniel Hall and Captain Vincent Franchino were wed in Cadet Chapel in a ceremony officiated by a Unitarian Universalist minister.
The two met at the academy in 2009, when Daniel was a senior and Vincent was a freshman, and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was still a year away from being repealed. Through those years they had to keep their sexuality and their relationship in secret.
Vincent said: “We’ve experienced everything from people feeling awkward around us to being called faggots while holding hands and walking down the street, stuff like that. But despite what we’ve been through, nothing was worse than having served during the ‘ Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ years.”
“We couldn’t tell the truth for fear of what would happen to us. So we put it in our minds that we were never going to say we were gay. We were never going to get made fun of, and we were certainly never going to get kicked out of the Army,” he added.
“It’s really frustrating when two people have feelings for each other but are not allowed to act on them. We were serving under a policy that was telling all of us, perfectly capable soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, to lie about ourselves,” Daniel told.
Congrats to the newlyweds!!!
By Jack Ross:
ReplyDeleteAt West Point ? This shows a major step forward.