Hundreds Of Active Duty Gay Service Members March In Pride Parade

Editor’s note: See special note below.

Hundreds of active duty and veteran gay service members marched in Saturday’s LGBT pride parade in San Diego. Rex Wockner, famed journalist, shot this video and estimated the number of service members in the gay contingent to be about 300, adding most of them were active duty, and called it “a symbolic goodbye to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, which, while not quite dead-dead, is apparently dead enough!”

“Around 11:00am Pacific time on Saturday, July 16, about 350 active duty and veteran servicemembers made history stepping off as the third contingent (behind Dykes on Bikes) in the annual San Diego Gay Pride Parade,” writes journalist Karen Ocamb, at LGBT POV. “Their participation comes the day after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – but with the proviso that the military can not investigate, penalize, or discharge any servicemember believed to be gay as the Court hears the Log Cabin Republicans v US case challenging DADT.

“The idea for servicemembers to participate in the parade came from Sean Sala, 26, who served six years as a Navy operations specialist; he was discharged on June 30, 2011, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

“I’m getting emails from veterans and active-duty officers and enlisted from all over the nation. There are people flying in literally from the four corners of the nation to participate in this,” Sala told the Union-Tribune. “It’s turned from a very small idea to, now, a national movement.”

Via The Huffington Post:

National Guard member Nichole Herrera, 31, said she didn’t think twice about marching, even though the policy is back on the books. She said she was “choked up” several times as she walked down a main thoroughfare in San Diego, a major Navy port.

“This is one of the proudest days in my life. It’s time for it (the policy) to be gone,” Herrera said. “I’m a soldier no matter what, regardless of my sexual orientation.”

The crowd roared as the group waving military flags and holding placards identifying their military branch walked past the thousands.

Every branch of service was represented Saturday, including the Coast Guard. Marines and sailors ran out carrying their branch’s flags over their heads. One Marine stopped to pose with two towering bikini-clad blondes in stiletto-heeled boots.

Onlookers stepped into the parade route to salute them. One man in a rainbow colored shirt waved his feather boa and yelled “Hooah!” the military battle cry.

 

Note: While the media — including The New Civil Rights Movement — reported that Saturday’s pride parade in San Diego was the first to have gay service members participate openly, The New Civil Rights Movement contributor reminds us that the San Diego parade has had gay service members participating openly since 1977. Domi herself was a co-Grand Marshall in 1993. Apologies for the misstatement.