Eric Fanning, the first openly gay
Secretary of the U.S. Army, served as a grand marshal at Saturday's
San Diego Pride parade.
Fanning was nominated to the post in
September by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate in
May.
Speaking Friday at a rally to remember
Stonewall, the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement, Fanning
hit back at critics of the 2011 repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell,”
which prohibited openly gay troops, and this year's end of the ban on
transgender troops.
“Today, when our critics say that the
military is not a place for social experimentation, they may be
right,” Fanning
said. “But equality and inclusivity are not experiments. They
are American values.”
In remembering the 49 killed and dozens
injured last month during a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in
Orlando, Fanning said, “We should come together, even as we grieve
and mourn. … Because we must respond to acts of cowardice with acts
of confidence, with acts of pride in who we are and what we believe.”