Military Newspaper Rejects Lesbian Deployment Kiss

by Melanie Nathan, August 11, 2012.

Photo: Soldier ‘name withheld from publication’, © Copyright 2012 c/o Melanie Nathan. All rights reserved.

This photo depicts two women kissing goodbye, prior to a deployment to Afghanistan. The soldier who took the photograph submitted it for publication during Pride time to a military newspaper but was refused permission to use the picture in the article. The picture was apparently rejected  because it shows two women kissing.Surely this picture deserves parity.

According to a source who provided me with the picture, not all is fair and equal in the military as discrimination continues despite the fact that one year has passed since the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT).

In any event “LGBT service members, and all of us in the LGBT community are still facing discrimination everyday and more so until DOMA is repealed”, the service member asserted.

The source noted “the Post just doesn’t want to talk about it at all. The photographer asked to do a piece for June for pride month and they made some calls and were told that they cant publish anything like that… and the photographer tried again with the picture and they said they had guidance from higher up that they cannot publish it.”

Would it have been banned had it been a man and a woman kissing farewell pre-deployment?

Photo: Soldier ‘name withheld from publication’, © Copyright 2012 c/o Melanie Nathan. All rights reserved.

MELANIE NATHAN is the founding director of Private Courts Inc, a mediation, LGBTI equality and human rights advocacy firm based in San Francisco. She publishes http://oblogdeeoblogda.me and is co-producing Gay USA: the Movie. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter. She can be reached [email protected]