The Stars and Stripes Forever

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Happy Fourth!

Gay Marine Homecoming

All right, as much as I hate to admit being so damn sentimental, this picture made your Head Trucker lose it.  But they were tears of joy - the unthinkable has become the reality, as hard as it is to believe my own eyes.   Catch the story at Joe.My.God.

And I have lived to see this day, Lord have mercy.


Update:  Channel 2 news in Hawaii has this short interview with the couple. Apparently, Marine officials are not only okay with the photo, but are actually quite pleased at the publicity it has gotten the Corps. Way to go, Marines!

Bro Has My Back in NH, But Canada Stabs Gay Couples in the Back

I guess you fellas know that New Hampshire Republicans are trying to repeal the state's equal-marriage law, which came into effect on January 1, 2010. But in one family, at least, family values are proving stronger than party loyalty. The story goes like this:

Craig Stowell fought with the U.S. Marines in Iraq in 2004 and now is fighting for the right of gays, like his brother, to marry in New Hampshire.

"My brother and best friend, Calvin, was tormented all the way through high school because people knew he was gay," Craig Stowell, 30, said in an online petition seeking to pressure New Hampshire legislators not to repeal the state's 2009 law that legalized gay marriage. . . .

As the New Hampshire Legislature prepares to vote on whether to repeal the law, HB 437, Craig Stowell -- who serves as the Republican co-chairman of Standing Up For New Hampshire Families -- has launched an online campaign to keep the law as it is.

"If HB 437 passes, same-sex couples will no longer be allowed to marry," he says in an online petition he has posted at www.change.org. "This mean-spirited attack is nothing more than state-sponsored bullying."

In other news, remember all those gay and lesbian couples who got hitched in Canada after equal marriage became the law of the land in 2005?  Well now a Canadian lawyer in the Justice Department of Stephen Harper's Conservative government, which won a huge majority in last year's parliamentary election, has argued before a court that foreign couples who could not marry in their home countries cannot legally marry in Canada, either - which would make several thousand gay and lesbian couples now totally unhitched, their marriages null and void.

Dan Savage, who married his husband Terry Miller in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2005, commented this morning: 

When I got out of bed, I was a married man and as soon as I got on my Twitter feed I realized I had been divorced overnight.

A shocked Olivia Chow, member of Parliament for downtown Toronto and widow of the late New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton, says Harper's government has used a "back-door way" to attack same-sex marriage, and has hugely embarassed the nation with this about-face.

Video report here from the CBC, which won't let me embed it.


Update:  Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, and Freedom to Marry have issued a joint statement on the news from Canada. Excerpt:

No one’s marriage has been invalidated or is likely to be invalidated. The position taken by one government lawyer in a divorce is not itself precedential. No court has accepted this view and there is no reason to believe that either Canada’s courts or its Parliament would agree with this position, which no one has asserted before during the eight years that same-sex couples have had the freedom to marry in Canada. . . .

The message for same-sex couples married in Canada remains the same as it is for same-sex couples validly married here in the United States: take every precaution you can to protect your relationship with legal documents such as powers of attorney and adoptions, as you may travel to jurisdictions that don't respect your legal relationship. There is no reason to suggest that Canadian marriages of same-sex couples are in jeopardy, or to advocate that people try to marry again elsewhere, as that could cause these couples unnecessary complications, anxiety, and expense.

Nother update:  Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said Friday that equal marriage is still cool - and, most importantly, legal - in Canada, no matter where you're from:

I want to make it very clear that, in our government’s view, these marriages should be valid. We will change the Civil Marriage Act so that any marriages performed in Canada that aren't recognized in the couple's home jurisdiction will be recognized in Canada. This will apply to all marriages performed in Canada. We have been clear that we have no desire to reopen this issue – both myself and the prime minister consider this debate to be closed.

Well, that's a relief for lots of folks, I'm sure.

Marines Now Recruiting Gays

I am not making this up.  And in Tulsa, Oklafuckinghoma.  Believe it or not.  The NYT reports:

The Marines were the service most opposed to ending the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, but they were the only one of five invited branches of the military to turn up with their recruiting table and chin-up bar at the center Tuesday morning. Although Marines pride themselves on being the most testosterone-fueled of the services, they also ferociously promote their view of themselves as the best. With the law now changed, the Marines appear determined to prove that they will be better than the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard in recruiting gay, lesbian and bisexual service members.

Still, judging by the traffic at the gay rights center on Tuesday, there will not be an immediate flood of gay and lesbian Marine applicants. By 3 p.m., more than four hours after the Marines had set up their booth opposite the center’s AIDS quilt, only three women had wandered in, none ideal recruits. The local television crews who had come to watch the action — or inaction, as it turned out — easily outnumbered them. . . .

By 5 p.m. the Marines had packed up their booth and chin-up bar and headed out, with plans to come back later to attend a panel discussion. It was all uncharted territory. As Sergeant Henry had said the day before of the new world the Marines now inhabit, “At first it’s going to be kind of shock and awe.”

But like a good Marine, he was with the program: “My take is, if they can make it through our boot camp, which is the toughest boot camp in the world, then they ought to have the opportunity to wear the uniform.”

Lord have mercy, sometimes it makes your Head Trucker's head spin with all these amazing changes going on in the world. But I admire the Marines. Every one of them I've, um, known has been a perfect gentleman, and that's a fact.

Click here for a map and list of countries that now admit gay troops to their militaries.

Rachel covers the end of DADT with some newly-out troops.  Keep a hanky handy while you watch.





And MSNBC interviewed several former and currrent gay servicemembers on their reactions to repeal:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Marines Get Gay Training

Los Angeles Times:

WASHINGTON – Training for the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that prohibits gays from serving openly in the military is going better than expected, military leaders told Congress on Thursday.

Top officials from the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force testified before the House Armed Services Committee, with several telling committee members that training would be done as early as June.

"I'm looking specifically for issues that might arise coming out of the training, and the reality is that we've not seen them," said Gen. James Amos, the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. "I've asked for feedback . . . the clear majority of it is very positive."

This attitude is a turnaround for several of the generals who vocally opposed the repeal when it was being debated during last year's lame-duck session. Last November, Amos said he was concerned about a possible loss of unit cohesion and combat readiness in the case of a repeal. . . .

The repeal will take effect 60 days after President Obama, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify that it will not be harmful to military operations to reverse the ban.