A poster on the LGBT Weekly article points out that a contingent of active duty military personnel marched in a LGBT pride parade in New York in 1975. Marchers included Air Force TSgt. Leonard Matlovich, who made the cover of Time magazine that September for his pioneer efforts to get the military to accept gay and lesbian service members. So, yes, the San Diego marchers are not the first, even if they are the first in over a generation.
Today's marchers can see the light at the end of the tunnel of Don't Ask Don't Tell -- a policy that wouldn't even begin until 18 years after the 1975 march. Whatever promise the marchers with Sgt. Matlovich may have seen in the heady days of the sexual revolution (they couldn't know that darker days lay ahead of them), there is cause for celebration this year.
I don't think our lesbian and gay service members will have to wait 36 years to take part in their third pride parade.
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