Today We Get Married!

The day is here!  I still can't believe it.  I awoke this morning and found this card from Bill,, celebrating the 49th anniversary of our meeting.  I know Bill took a long time to pick out this card because the wording says it all.  

This is what I posted on Facebook this morning.  

I still can't believe this day has finally arrived.  The day that the love Bill and I have for one another no longer has to hide or apologize for who we are, the day that we are no longer lessor than, the day that we get married and thus have the dignity, respect, legal protections that all citizens of this country have. Somehow it seems appropriate that our anniversary is just one day before the Fourth of July, the date that the founders of this country proclaimed that all its citizens had the right to their pursuit of happiness and freedom.  

Let those wedding bells ring today folks because we're getting married today!

U. S. Supreme Court To Hear Proposition 8!

Finally!  The Supreme Court is taking the first step to granting same sex couples the same rights that heterosexual couples have had since the founding of this country.  

First same sex couple to receive marriage license in Washington State

The DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) is fundamentally an unconstitutional law and everyone knows it.

Junia and Patty get married in Washington State

Equal protection under the law is a fundamental right.

Dan Savage and his husband get married in Washington 

Marriage is not about constant sex but a loving and committed relationship.

One of hundreds of couples getting married in Washington State

Everyone has a fundamental right to pursue happiness which is guaranteed in our constitution.

Together 40 years

In this country we deny a portion of our population this fundamental right of the way they happen to be born.  

Guess who? Together 48 years!

This is the beginning the end of the discrimination of same sex marriages in this country folks.  

Gay Marriage USA Update

Ike (my brother), me and Bill - September 27, 2012 - our Christmas card photo this year 

As of a few minutes ago, our posting on "Gay Marriage USA" has 42,670 Likes, 2,338 Comments, and 6,218 Shares.  The webmaster of "Gay Marriage USA" sent me a message this morning saying our photo was the second most popular photo ever posted to their website.  

A "Sergio" informed me this morning that our photo has now been published to "Occupy Borders" and that we are becoming "quite famous."  Hey, finally my Fifteen Minutes of Fame!

I am working on reading all the 2,338 comments.  About 30% of them are negative from the Usual Suspects, the Religious Right and the hateful homophobes.  I don't respond to them but I am attempting to respond to all the positive, supportive comments.  

Never in my lifetime did I dream that the relationship I have with Bill would be "accepted" so positively.  Of course I always knew it was right and had always assumed that we would go to our graves living in the shadows of legitimacy.  Now that there is an actual real possibility that we can be married for real, it is almost too much for me to comprehend.  

Even if marriage equality doesn't happen during our lifetime it will happen for those who follow us.  I am glad that Bill and I were able to do our part in furthering this fundamental human freedom of the pursuit of happiness with the one we love.  

It's all good folks, all good.

Going Viral

Ron and Bill - 1978

Yesterday my posting of the "then (1964)" and "now (2011)" picture of me and Bill on the "Gay Marriage USA" Facebook page went viral, much to my surprise.  This after an innocuous e-mail from my cousin Tim Tipton suggesting that I post a photo of me and Bill to  the Gay Marriage USA Facebook page.

A few minutes ago I see where that posting had 40,868 Likes, 2,198 Comments and 5,864 Shares.  Wow.  My Fifteen minutes of fame has finally arrived at the grand age of seventy-one years.  Who knew?

So, my goal is to read all of the comments and acknowledge the positive comments.  Of course there are more than a few negative comments of which I will not acknowledge or even engage in conversation, learning long ago that when a person is that insecure in their own person and fearful of two men (or women) loving each other, it is a waste of my time to try and convince them otherwise.  And I definitely don't feel as if I have to defend myself.  What is there to defend?  Finding the one true love of my life and living a life that all too few people live, a life of true happiness?  Yes folks, I know what I have and what they don't have and will probably never have, happiness.  

Reading the comments I came across several from the Reverend Fred Phelps.  You know him don't you folks?  He's the one who gets his congregation to show up at military funerals and blame the death of those soldiers on gay people, who he calls "Fags."  Yes folks, I have arrived.  I have stirred the ire of the Hate Monger in Chief, Fred Phelps.  To tell you the truth, all I can do is smile.  

Rev. Phleps preaching the gospel

Gay Marriage USA

Yesterday my cousin Tim Tipton sent me a message that I should post my and Bill's picture to the new Facebook website "Gay Marriage U.S.A."  I thought "Why not?" Bill and I have been together a long time (48 years) and why not show others that it is possible to stay with the same person you love even if you don't have the many legal and financial benefits of marriage just like heterosexuals have?  Yes indeed, "Why not?"

Imagine my surprise this morning when Cousin Tim calls me and asks me if I saw Facebook this morning. As a matter of fact when he called, I was just turning on my computer to check my e-mail and perhaps to update my blog about my morning visit to have an ultra-sound.  Well guess what folks?  My "little posting" of the Before and After picture of me and Bill went viral on Facebook!  

My first thought was "OMG!  Bill's going to kill me!"  Bill is of the Old School of Thought that things like gay should be kept a secret and not discussed in public or polite society.  Believe me folks, I've been working on him for many years to convince him that it is ALL RIGHT to be open about his gayness and our relationship.  We have had many a battle over my openness and his desire to stay in the closet so as not to "offend anyone."  It's only been the last couple of hears that Bill has stuck his big toe and finally the rest of his feet out of his self-imposed closet.  I think the way I won him over to my way of thinking was convincing him that many people just don't care that we live together.  They are more concerned about their own lives than to waste their time worrying about those two old men who live next door to them who always have those fabulous flowers out in the driveway (I just put in winter pansies yesterday folks!) 

Winter Pansies in driveway

Bill's down in his room now reading the over 27,000 (so far) comments on our Facebook photos. That should keep him busy the rest of the afternoon.

Bill reading FB comments on his iPad a few minutes ago

Hey folks, I have to say this positive reaction to my Facebook posting does my heart good. You have to remember where we're coming from.  When I moved in with Bill in 1964, gay couples weren't cool. In fact, just being gay wasn't cool.  In fact, being gay was against the law.  Man oh man, how far we have come as a country.

Never in our lifetimes did we ever think we could live openly as a gay couple let alone get married....for real.  Nothing against civil unions and individual states legalizing gay marriages, all steps in the right direction but to us, the only thing that matters is getting married for real and that means same sex marriage recognized on the Federal level with all the legal and financial protections that are now applied only to heterosexual married couples.  

Our goal is to be married on our 50th anniversary with is in July of 2014.  At that time I will be 73 years old and Bill will be 86 years old.  Two old guys, two old GAY GUYS but not too old to get married.  

Me and Bill 1978

Gay Marriage Likely To Go Before Supreme Court Within The Next Year

Me and Bill - 1972

Could it be possible? Could marriage equality, also known as "gay marriage", become  a reality in my lifetime?  Dare I even imagine?

Bill and I often talk about how far our country has come towards ending discrimination against gays and lesbians.  We never thought we would see this in our lifetime.

We remember all to well that it wasn't that long ago that we had to hide who we were for fear of our physical safety and economic survival.

This morning I read on Huff Post where Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that the Defense of Marriage Act would probably come up soon before the Supreme Court this year.  See here.

Last year Delaware passed a civil union law for same sex partners.  Initially Bill and I were going to rush down to the courthouse in Georgetown and get "hitched".  Then we thought, "This still isn't the real thing" and it isn't.  Delaware's civil union law is a second class "marriage" of same sex partners.  To us, it is not equal to a real marriage.  I'm reminded of what a friend of mine said a few years ago after he and his partner of 31 years ended their relationship.  A few years earlier he and his partner traveled to Canada with a lesbian couple and "got married."  After their breakup I asked him "Are you going to get a divorce now?"  His answer was "Oh that wasn't a "real" marriage. That was make believe."  

I think that says it all, those civil unions and all other arrangements that are designed to give same sex couples they are "married" but designed not to offend many heterosexual couples are "make believe."

Maybe, just maybe in our lifetime Bill and I can get married for real.  It's about time, this summer we will mark 49 years together as a couple.  What a nice 50th anniversary present, to get married.

Bill and me - 2011

Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day

Today is Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day today folks.  Dan Cathy, president of Chick-fil-A has proudly announced that he and his company DO NOT APPROVE of marriage equality.

Hey, I'm all for free speech.  Dan Cathy and his like can express their disapproval of my right to love who I want to but I also have the right to not do business with his business because I DO NOT AGREE with him.  That's the way it works Dan Cathy.

I wonder if Dan Cathy knows how Anita Bryant's campaign against gays turned out.  Anita was fighting crusading for "family values", like gay people don't have family values.

Here we go again folks.  A delusional, arrogant "family values" man decides to end all this nonsense about same sex marriage, which is really marriage equality.

Here's a clue Dan Cathy, YOU'RE GOING TO LOSE.

Ah, I remember the good old days of Anita's "Crusade Against Gays."  Those days were my heyday in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the gayest resort in these United State of America.

Below is a video that played in on of our hangouts in Provincetown, always to much cheering from the audience, straight and gay.  Yes, pray for us Anita.

I Got That Funny Feeling Again

Bill and Ron Milton, Delaware -  2011

Today I got that "funny feeling" again.  Three times in my life I've gotten this "funny feeling." 

It is hard to describe this "funny feeling" but I'll attempt to do so now.  Have you ever read about those near death experiences in which the soon to be deceased see the "light" at the end of a long tunnel.  The light is always described as emanating a feeling of total love and acceptance.  The feeling is one of comfort and peace.

Maybe it is a stretch to describe my feeling as heaven but I don't know how else to describe it.

The first time I experienced this feeling was on a cold February night in 1963.  I had just completed a three years in the Army working at the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland.  During that time I had to keep my homosexuality totally in the closet because I didn't want to lose my top secret clearance and get kicked out of the Army, which is what they did in those prehistoric times of the Fifties and Sixties. 

Bill and Ron Pennsauken, New Jersey - 1964

After returning to my home in Downingtown, Pennsylvania I took a bus to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to spend a weekend with my friend Sal.  Sal was a cook in the Air Force also stationed at Ft. Meade.  His tour of duty ended a few months before mine.  Sal was also gay.  Visiting Sal was my "coming out party" so to say. Sal and his friend Howard were going to take me to my first gay bar.

Of course I was very nervous.  I didn't know what to expect.  Sal lived in Elizabeth, a suburb of Pittsburgh.  That cold Saturday night we were going to visit a small local bar in the nearby town of Clairton, which was the hometown of Sal's friend Howard.

The straight part of the local bar was downstairs in the main entrance to the building.  The gay bar was accessed by a fire escape in the back of the main building.  We climbed the fire escape to the gay bar.

As we entered the darkened bar from the metal fire escape steps, butterflies were swirling around in my stomach.  The first thing I saw after my eyes adjusted to the darkness was male figures slow dancing together to a jukebox record.  I forget the name of the song but I will never forget that sight. The wild butterflies in my stomach disappeared immediately and were replaced by a calmness and warmth.  I was "home."  I no longer felt ALONE.  I no longer felt like a criminal in hiding.  I no longer felt the heavy oppression of shame of being homosexual.  There were others like me and they looked normal!  I didn't see one man dressed as a woman.  The sight of those men slow dancing that night in that small town bar in Clairton PA opened a whole new world to me.

Ron and Bill Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - 1974

The second time I experienced that funny feeling was the first time I visited Provincetown, Massachusetts.  I had heard a lot about "P-town" as the gay resort destination of America.  I was curious and decided the summer of 1974 to take my vacation in Provincetown.  I wasn't as nervous this time. 

From my first experience in 1963 to this time eleven years later in 1974, I had been a regular weekend bar hopper to the most popular Philadelphia gay bars.  I was also in a committed gay relationship since 1964.  This July weekend in 1974 my good friend Bob and I were going to see what all the fuss was about in P-Town.  We weren't disappointed.

We made the twelve hour trip in Bob's pickup truck driving from my center city home in Philadelphia, PA through New Jersey, New York, Mystic, Connecticut and then finally to the tip of Cape Cod where Provincetown is located.

Ron and Bill Downingtown, Pennsylvania - 1978

We arrived in town on Commercial Street on a Saturday evening.  P-town was packed.  As our truck inched it's way through the Saturday night crowd, we realized we were at someplace special.  Walking, strolling and laughing in the streets were all kinds of couples.  Straight couples, men and men couples, women and women couples.  Everyone was so relaxed.  For the first time in my life I felt the tremendous burden of oppression lifted from my being.  This must be what straight people feel like all the time!  Freedom!  Now we knew what all the fuss was about in Provincetown.  Every summer from that date on I spent at least one week of my vacation in Provincetown, ending in my last visit which lasted three weeks in 1986. 

Today was the third time I felt that special "feeling."  This was when I learned that President Obama announced publicly that he supported marriage equality.  In other words, he fully supports same sex marriage.

I never thought I would experience this feeling again but I have and it feels damn good. 

Maybe, just maybe in my lifetime Bill and I can get married for real.  Not any of this civil union or domestic partnership second- class make-believe marriage but a real marriage.  You know, just like the straight people with all the benefits, protections and respect.  If and when then happens I will have realized my life long dream that only a few years ago I considered impossible during my lifetime.  Bill and I will be married. 

Bill and Ron Milton, Delaware - 2011

In a few months we will celebrate our being together for forty-eight years.  Maybe by the time we celebrate our 50th anniversary, during the second year of the Obama administration with a Democratically controlled House and Senate, Congress will repeal DOMA.  

The question is not "Is it going to happen?" but "When is it going to happen?" 

I hope I live to see it.  

Ron and Bill 1965

Eloquent

Republican Washington State representative Maureen Walsh speaks on equality.  And yes, when you're done hearing and seeing her speak you'll go back and make sure this is a Republican.  Maybe there is hope yet.  After all, it IS about equality.

Court Rules California's Proposition 8 Violates the U.S. Constitution

Photo by Ron Tipton from 2009 March on Washington

This just in!  The California U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution.  Take that Michelle Bachmann.  


It is just a matter of time before the discriminatory law D.O.M.A. will be ruled unconstitutional and then same sex marriages will be legal throughout the United States.  More important same sex marriages will be legal at the federal level which means same sex couples will no longer be treated as second class citizens who pay first class citizens taxes and will enjoy all the protections and tax benefits that heterosexual couples now take for granted.


I never thought I would see this much progress in my lifetime.  Who knows, maybe Bill and I will really get married someday just like our friends, family and neighbors.  To no longer be discriminated agains, that is a dream that may yet come true in my our lifetime. 

Bill and Ron

Rare Photo!

Bill and Ron with Heidie at neighbors' house a few minutes ago

Hey folks!  A rare photo was just taken a few minutes ago.  Our neighbors called and asked Bill if he could help them move their couch.  I wasn't ask but I went over anyway.  I'm nosy.  I wanted to see my neighbor's new couch.

After Bill was done helping the husband move the couch (I of course was keeping the Misses entertained), Bill joined us in her living room.  Her little Yorkie was yapping, wanting to be picked up.  I picked her up and placed her in Bill's reluctant arms (which doesn't matter to Heidi the Yorkie, she LOVES Bill).  Now that I had Bill immobilized I asked Barbara (our neighbor) to snap a picture of us with her Android phone.  Here it is!

Bill doesn't like to have his picture taken.  We have very few pictures of us together.  I think the last ones were the photos my blogger friend Mark H. took this past summer when he and his spouse (Fred) visited us.  I warned Bill that we are going to have our picture taken together when we get do our Civil Union Thing (Delaware still isn't at the "married" stage yet for same sex couples, we take what we can get to protect our legal rights at least here in the state where we live).

I told Bill that I'm going to give him a Big Wet One when the ceremony is over and I'll try and get that picture published in the local paper.  He can't sleep at night now even considering the possibility that he's finally going to be outed BIGTIME!

Get ready Bill, this is just a preview.

Yes, I noticed that the picture is blurred.  Actually, that's not a bad thing at our age.  We're sort of like the old movie stars who soap up the camera lens to blur out their winkles.

Will You Marry Me?

Bill is not happy about being outed 

This morning, on bended knee, still weak from my week long bout with a cold/flu, I asked Bill to marry me.  He accepted!

After forty-seven years, we're going to make it legal...sort of. As of January 1st this year, Delaware now has in place a civil union law that same sex couple can marry.  I'm not sure is the world "marry" is exactly right but that is the word I'm using.

There he is, my Life Partner and Best Friend - Bill

While this new law is little more than a feel-good law for same sex couples, it does provide some statewide protection for hospital visits, insurance benefits within the state, and some inheritance rights.  We are still a long way from truly equality that our heterosexual counterparts take for granted every day of their lives.

Bill isn't going to like me writing about this, and usually I accede to his requests but this time I'm writing about our situation anyway.  Bill is a very private person.  And he is of the old school of gays when they are called "homosexuals" and you were not seen nor heard from lest you offend the straights.  Of course anyone who knows me, know that I am the exact opposite.  I make no apologies nor do I accept being discounted as an American citizen or human being because I just happened to be born gay.  If anyone has a problem with me being gay it is their problem, not mine.  Of course this attitude has gotten me into a lot of trouble over the years but that is my lot in life.  I accept the challenges and deal with them as they come.  Most battles I have won, but I have lost a few battles including two job just for the very fact that I was known to be gay and didn't disown that fact.

Now how are we going to handle the details of ACTUALLY getting married? Bill didn't want me writing anything about it on my blog.  Good luck there Bill!  No way I'm not writing about it.  I'm not sending out wedding announcements though.

After the "me first" fervor of the local gay couples dies down, Bill and I will take a trip to Georgetown, the local county seat.  We have a justice of the peace who has made it known in the local newspapers he doesn't approve of same sex couples but he is performing the ceremonies anyway because he wants to keep his job.  Hey justice of the peace!  It's called the LAW!  Obey it!

Double click to enlarge 

I know of other couple who are traveling to Kent County or New Castle County were they will receive a friendlier reception of the local officials who are also obeying the new law of civil unions for same sex couples.  Not me, why should I go out of my way just to accommodate this guy who DOESN'T APPROVE?

Now I'm not going to get into all the arguments of "this will ruin the institution of marriage" by allowing same sex couples to marry (most of my best straight friends are of this opinion by the way), because that is just a waste of my time.  There are some people whose minds you will never change and I'm not going to waste one more minute of my time trying to make them "accept me."  I'm 70 years old and I'm tired of these people and I'm tired of dealing with this attitude  Tired.

So some day, maybe next month, Bill and I will take the short ride down Rt. 9 to Georgetown and jump through the whatever hoops necessary to finally get some legal protection and community recognition that we too are a loving and committed couple who contribute to our community and provide a better place on this earth for us all to live.  We're all in this together folks, get used to it!

Gay Veteran Talks to Mitt Romney

Hey folks, I took this off of YouTube.  This is an interview that ABC News recorded when a veteran who Romney happened to spot at a luncheonette and thought would provide a good photo op and who just happens to be gay asked Republican presidential candidate a question about same sex marriages.  Romney did not know the veteran was gay when the interview began.  Watch how the gay veteran whose name is Bob Garon, hands Romney his ass.

From one gay veteran to another, thank you sir for showing Romney for the hypocrite that he is.  Romney once supported same sex unions when he was governor of Massachusetts.  But now that he's running for president he is all too willing to throw under the bus all the gays in lesbians in this country by denying them their constitutional rights.

My cousin Kevin W. first posted this video on his Facebook account.  This was my responding comment to my cousin

"Cousin Kevin, thank you very much for posting this video. I'm going to post it to my blog. It is time for this country to stop discriminating against it's citizens who just happen to be gay or lesbian. We're not asking for the so called "special rights" but for the SAME RIGHTS as every other man and woman has in this country. Romney or any other politician who espouses the homophobic "I believe marriage is between a man and a woman" talking point WILL NOT GET MY VOTE. Nor should any gay man or woman who has any amount self respect let these politicians get away with this continuing discrimination. Bill and I have been together for 47 years now. We pay equal taxes, how about equal rights? Bravo for the veteran in this video. He "has more moral courage than a dozen politicians like Romney.

I don't doubt I'll get some feedback for my posting on Facebook from some of my Good Christian (as opposed to Real Christian) Facebook friends lecturing me on the "marriage is only between a man and a woman."  Oh we all know the talking points.  But EXACTLY where does it say in the Bible or Constitution that MARRIAGE IS BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN?  Huh?  


And even if it did what difference would it make?  Slavery is mentioned in the Bible.  Does that make it right?  Women shouldn't wear red is mentioned in the Bible, does that make it right?

Sorry to get all preachy and indignant on all of you reading this blog (preachy blog postings usually make for boring blog postings) but I am SO TIRED OF THIS CRAP!

All you folks who believe MARRIAGE IS ONLY BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN are on the WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY.  Write it down folks, fifty years from now people reading about this government sanctioned discrimination against a segment of the population will be scratching their heads and say to themselves "How stupid they were!"

Bill and I have been together forty-seven years now.  We are productive members of our society.  We have always paid our fair share of taxes.  In fact, we have paid MORE than our fair share of taxes because he don't have any children.  I don't recall ever getting a discount on my school taxes because I didn't have a child in the school system.  Oh no, never happened.  But what is going to happen is crass, opportunist politicians like Mitt Romney will be exposed by history for the bigots that they are.  And yes, I know Obama espouses the same line about "marriage between a man and a woman" and he is a crass, opportunist politician too lacking courage to do the right thing.

There, I've had my say.  No more preaching from this gay vet...for at least a week anyway.

Ron (me) just out of Basic Training March 1960

I know I've posted these pictures before of me in the Army (27 Jan 1960 - 27 Jan 1963) but I'm doing it again.  I served my country which is more than I can say for politicians like Romney, Gingrich and yes...Barack Obama.

Ron (me on the left) at Ft. Devens Massachusetts April 1960

The above photo was taken of me with my friends Bill Allen (in the center) and Dick Egan during a break from classes we were attending at the Army Security Agency school for communications intercept.  Yes folks, we all had a Top Secret Clearance.  After school I spent 2 1/2 years working for the National Security Agency at Ft. Meade, Maryland from 1960 to January 1963.  During that time I survived innumerable witch hunts for gays.  Many of my friends were kicked out, some for just being accused of being gay.  Two of my fellow soldiers committed suicide on base (in a locked car they asphyxiated themselves) rather than face the shame of being kicked out of the Army for being gay.  Remember, this was back in the Bad Old Days when being gay was a crime.

Me (on the right) with my friend Jim Harris 1962

The above photo was taken at the Firing Range at Ft. George G. Meade with my friend Jim Harris of Bingington New York.  Yes, we were both gay.  No, were weren't lovers.  No, we did not engage in sexual activity.  Jim was my friend, he just happened to be gay as I was, and still am.  I don't know what happened to Jim.  We lost touch after my tour of duty ended.  I think we exchanged a few letters but it dropped off as often happens when good friends are separated geographically and go on with their lives.

I had other gay friends while I was in the Army.  They were Ron and Sal.  Both are dead now but we were all good friends.  No, there was never any sex.  We were just friends.  Something straight people have to realize about gay people is that just because you're gay doesn't mean you're jumping into bed with every gay person you met.

Ron Hampton 1961 Ft. Meade, Maryland

My friend Ron Hampton in my room at the barracks at Ft. Meade, Maryland 1961.  I had my own room because I was assistant platoon sergeant.  Imagine that, a gay guy assistant platoon sergeant!  Guess what?  Troop morale didn't go down, everyone liked me.  Ron died in January of 2006.

Sal De Rosa, Ft. Meade, Maryland 1961

This is a photo of my friend Sal De Rosa.  Sal was in the Air Force whose barracks were right next to our Army barracks at Ft. Meade.  Sal, Ron and I had a great friendship the 2 1/2 years we were stationed at Ft. Meade.  We all survived the witch hunt but Sal and Ron did have a few close calls for associating with the 

wrong (read that "gay") people.  Sal died in October of 2007.

Sal DeRosa and Ron Hampton, Ft. Meade, Maryland 1962

Sal and Ron put on a musical revue (how gay!) a the Ft. Meade service club.  This is the poster that I made that was posted in the lobby of the service club.  I've often wondered if the folks in charge of the security clearances at Ft. Meade and NSA had any clue that there was a nest of gay guys putting on a musical revue at the service club.  I bet they did!

Sal DeRosa birthday celebration at the Ft. Meade Service Club, 1962

This is a group photo we had of our friends (my camera of course!) taken for a birthday party for our friend Sal at the service club.  Sale is the guy in the gray (gay) shiny suit with the knife being held to his throat (by John Bicking, who we were all hot for by the way).  Ron Hampton is the guy in the checkerd (gay) sport coat seated on the right laughing.  His girlfriend (beard) Coleen is to his right (she has the red hair).
Sal's girlfriend Pat took the picture.  Ironically Pat is still in touch with me to this day.  She knew we were all gay.  Didn't bother her.  I'm the tall guy in the back with the crew cut, with my eyes closed (as I often do when my picture is taken), standing next to the guy who has his head cocked in my direction.


So there is my Gay Photo Gallery of My Time In The Army at Ft. Meade, Maryland With a Top Secret Clearance.  The morale of the troops didn't go down and our country did just fine. 


I've been meaning to post these pictures for a long time but never got around to it.  Now is the time.  


This is Proof Positive that the Army did just fine with us gays in it and the country will do just fine when Bill and I get married in 2012.  Long overdue and about time.  

My partner and spouse, Bill Kelly 1954

Yes folks, my partner and spouse is also a veteran.  Imagine that!  And the country survived.  Wow.


This year Bill and I are going to get "married" (civil union) in Delaware.  While it's not the the real "marriage" with all the tax benefits and legal protections that straights have with their marriages, it is at least a step in the right direction.  Hopefully, this country will come to its senses before we die and we can legally get married just like any other loving and devoted couple in this country.