An openly gay marine
has caused a stir online after sharing the traditional
home-coming first kiss with his boyfriend in Hawaii. Sgt
Brandon Morgan of Oakdale, California, was captured as he
jumped into the arms of boyfriend, reported by International
Business Times to be called Dalan Wells.
Welcome home: Sgt
Brandon Morgan's embrace with boyfriend Dalan Wells has
gone viral in the blogosphere after it was posted on
Facebook.
The pair embraced
and locked lips as they were reunited following the end of
Morgan's Afghanistan tour with the US Marines. They join a
longstanding tradition of military personnel vying to
share the ‘first kiss’ with their partners on returning
home from operational tour.
The picture went
viral after being posted on the Gay Marines Facebook page
and popular gay blogs Joe.My.God and Towleroad, receiving
more than 18,000 ‘likes’ and almost 4,000 comments since
Saturday.
‘Welcome home and
thank you for your service!’ wrote one commenter. ‘This
is an awesome picture! Love knows no gender, race, creed
or sexual preference.’
‘Welcome home
Marine!’ wrote another. ‘Thank you for your service! As a
veteran of the U.S. Army it brings tears to my eyes to see
you be able to express your love without fear. God bless
you and your BF. May you have many more years together!’
During his
deployment Morgan recorded a Christmas message dedicated
to ‘all my friends and family’ but without mention of
Wells.
Responding to
Facebook comments he described Wells as 'the giant in the
photo' and quipped 'can't believe how many shares and
likes we have gotten on this'. He added: ‘To everyone who
has responded in a positive way. My partner and I want to
say thank you.
‘We didn't do this
to get famous, or something like that, we did this cause
after 3 deployments and four years knowing each other, we
finally told each other how we felt.’
The photo of Sgt
Morgan and his partner comes five months after the
military's ban on openly gay service expired. Their ‘don't
ask, don't tell’ policy that had banned openly gay men and
women from serving in the US military ended last
September.
source - Daily Mail UK