Our Year in Review – April ‘11-‘12
The loathsome “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy was finally abolished in September, nine months after President Obama signed legislation that would allow openly gay personnel to serve in the armed forces. Some gay and lesbian service members couldn’t wait to say ‘sayonara’ to DADT’s draconian restrictions. In December, Fire Controlman 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta was the first to kiss her fiancée, Fire Controlman 3rd Class Citlalic Snell, in a U.S. Navy homecoming ceremony in Virginia Beach, VA. In Navy tradition, one sailor is chosen by raffle to be the first off the ship to kiss a loved one—and Gaeta’s and Snell’s was the first same-sex smooch in military history.
A kiss is still a kiss—but what a kiss it was! When a female naval officer smooched her fiancee during a military homecoming ritual, it indelibly marked the true and final end to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The victories of the past year seemed to come fast and furious: New York finally legalizing same-sex marriage along with Maryland and Washington State; Chaz Bono busting a move as Dancing with the Stars’ first transgender contestant; the snowballing Occupy Wall Street movement demanding justice for the hardworking 99 percent. Even great tragedy, and the still-raw memories of America’s worst terrorist attack, failed to slow the rekindling of our optimism. (And if you want more proof, see GO’s landmark Tenth Anniversary issue this September!)
OUT LIKE A LAMB
The nine-year, trillion-dollar Iraq War ended quietly in December, when the last U.S. military convoy left Camp Adder near Nasiriyah. Battle-weary soldiers wrapped their weapons in pink bubble-wrap for the long flight back home. The U.S. handed over control of the base to the Iraqi government in a subdued ceremony, a far cry from President George W. Bush’s showy—but disastrously premature—claim of ‘Mission Accomplished’ aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2003. The future prosperity of Iraq and Iraqis remains uncertain. As on-the-ground reporters wrote in the Washington Post, “it was an ambivalent conclusion to the upheaval of the past eight years, which has transformed their country beyond recognition without, in the eyes of many, significantly improving their lives.”
