President Barack Obama has promoted a
story of the historic first gay kiss since repeal of “Don't Ask,
Don't Tell.”
A picture and a link to the story was
posted on Obama's re-election blog (barackobama.tumblr.com) along
with the caption: “President Obama signed the repeal of 'Don't Ask,
Don't Tell' into law one year ago today.”
Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class
Marissa Gaeta of Placerville, California told the Virginia Pilot
that she purchased 50 $1 tickets for the “first” raffle to win
the privilege of being the first to exit the returning USS Oak Hill
as it docked in Virginia Beach after 80 days at sea.
Gaeta and her partner, Petty Officer
3rd Class Citlalic Snell of Los Angeles, shared the
coveted “first kiss” on the pier as a crowd screamed and waved
flags around them.
“I think that it's significant,”
Snell told the paper in a videotaped interview. “This is the first
time where we can actually show who we are. You know, being in the
military where it was not allowed. We can show it. We can be public
about it. We don't have to hide our relationship. And I think that
it's something that is going to open a lot of doors, not just our
relationship but all the other gay and lesbian relationships that are
in the military.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of
this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
On December 22, 2010, Obama signed the
bill that started the process of ending the policy that for 18 years
banned gay and bisexual troops from serving openly.