I may be way behind the curve here, so I apologize if this has been diaried before, but I just found out, at the annual London Gay Pride parade the military takes part. They march in the parade, in formation, to wild cheers and applause. Here is a video, you just need to watch the beginning to see what I mean.
Now I am sure many Brits are thinking, "Yah, so what." Well from this Yanks perspective this is refreshing and aggravating at the same time. America and the UK have routinely served on joint military missions, most notably in Iraq and Afghanistan recently. There may be no fighting force that the American military respects more than the British. Yet, it so freaking aggravating that there are people who insist that we cannot simply overturn DADT, that we must make the few holdouts in the military comfortable, etc. Meanwhile, out staunchest allies have no issue with allowing their patriotic gay military personnel to very publicly represent their homosexuality and their military service at the same time....AT THE SAME TIME. DADTDSDM = Do Ask, Do tell, Do serve, Do March.
You know who was standing right beside those military personnel. PM Gordon Brown's wife, proudly waving a rainbow Union Jack.
Bravo to England! I am not going to call out anybody except for the obstructionist members of the military and the right who are making this difficult. Lets get our act together!
Here is a picture from the 2007 London Gay Pride parade.