A San Diego man and his partner made history yesterday when they became the first male same-sex couple to be chosen for the ceremonial first kiss during the homecoming of submarine warship USS San Francisco.
The Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS San Francisco (SSN 711) returned to its home port at Naval Base Point Loma following an extended seven-month deployment to the Western Pacific.
NBC 7 reported that Thomas Sawicki and his boyfriend Shawn Brier were the lucky couple chosen to share the first kiss off the ship.
“Everyone was cheering for me when they announced it over email,” Sawicki said. “Everyone was very excited, very supportive, very happy.”
According to the report the American Military Partner Association, a support network for LGBT couples in the military, praised the choice as a milestone for “modern military families.”
“Since the repeal of the discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law, we’ve made tremendous progress as a community and as a nation in our pursuit of liberty and justice for all Americans,” The American Military Partner Association President Ashley Broadway-Mack. “Although we still have progress to make, moments like these remind us just how far we’ve come.”
