May 2, 2012
Navy Lands a Marine: 1st Gay Couple to Get Engage on Military Base
Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Two gay military men may be the first same-sex couple to have gotten publicly engaged on a military base, LGBT Weekly reported.
When Avarice Guerrero, a Marine, returned from duty in Afghanistan to San Diego's Camp Pendleton he was greeted by his boyfriend Cory Huston, a Navy veteran who was discharged under the former Don't Ask Don't Tell Act -- a legislation the prohibited gays from openly serving in the military.
Before the couple was reunited Huston waited nervously for his boyfriend's return as he chain-smoked and repeated his proposal. Huston and Guerrero had been separated for ten long months.
"This is a huge step for me," Huston told the newspaper.
Once Guerrero spotted Huston he dropped his bags and kissed his partner. After a few minutes of embrace, Huston got down on one knee and asked his boyfriend to marry him. Guerrero of course said, "Yes."
"I was blown away," Guerrero said. "I was shocked that after all we'd been through, he would honestly want to spend the rest of his life with someone like me."
LGBT Weekly claims that the event could be the first public engagement to a same-sex couple on a military base.
In December 2011, two Navy officers became the first women to share a "first kiss." Petty Officer Second Class Marissa Gaeta and Petty Officer Third Class Citlalic Snell kissed in the rain on the dock after the USS Oak Hill returned to Join Expeditionary Base in Virginia.
A photo of a Marine kissing his partner after he returned home from Afghanistan went viral in late February. Marine Sgt. Brandon Morgan embraced his boyfriend, Dalan Wells, by jumping into his arms and planting one on him. A friend photographed the couple and soon the picture and their story spread across the Internet.
"I can only imagine that it went viral because we were the first men to kiss," said Morgan. "To everyone who has responded in a positive way, my partner and I want to say thank you," Morgan wrote on his Facebook. "Dalan, the giant in the photo, can't believe how many shares and likes we have gotten on this. We didn't do this to get famous, or something like that we did this 'cause after three deployments and four years knowing each other, we finally told each other how we felt."
