As the year that saw Don't Ask Don't Tell comes to a close, I'm going to break tradition and post something that isn't specifically sports related.  But hey--this does follow my recent post of male cadets from the Air Force Academy encouraging school spirit by dancing shirtless while lip-synching to "I'm Sexy And I Know It," which prompted their team to beat Army.

Towleroad reports:  The dock landing ship Oak Hill, deployed for three months in Central America, returned home today. As part of Navy tradition, one person is chosen to be the first off the boat to kiss a loved one.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta was chosen, and her girlfriend, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell, was waiting.

The Virginian-Pilot reports:

As the homecoming drew near, the crew and ship's family readiness group sold $1 raffle tickets for the first kiss. Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta bought 50 - which is actually fewer than many people buy, she said, so she was surprised Monday to find out she'd won.

Her girlfriend of two years, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell, was waiting when she crossed the brow.

They kissed. The crowd ch#mce_temp_url#eered. And with that, another vestige of the policy that forced gays to serve in secrecy vanished.

For younger viewers, there was an iconic World War II photo of a returning sailor kissing a nurse.  As I recall from an interview, this was a "real life" moment captured on film, and the two didn't know each other, but were caught up in the excitement of the time.

And then--here's where I pull it back to lgbt sports related history--according to  Reed:     

In August 1945, Japan surrendered to the United States, ending World War II. Americans flooded New York City's Times Square in celebration. Among those present was Life magazine photographer, Alfred Eisenstadt, who snapped the now famous WWII photo of a sailor unreservedly kissing a nurse. Unfortunately, Eisenstadt was never able to record their names and the true identities of the sailor and nurse will remain unknown. Still, the couple in Eisenstadt's "World War II Kiss" are widely recognized as the epitome of heterosexual romance and passion. In striking similarity to the WWII Kiss photo, the Navy Gay Kiss is also one of the first and most famous gay ads. In addition to being published in Interview magazine, the Diesel ad also ran in multiple high fashion magazines and became widely reconized in the gay press. Photographed by David Lachapelle for Diesel Jeans in 1994, this photograph evoked the same patriotism, excitement, and passion as Eisenstadt's photo fifty years earlier.

The scene, much like the original WWII photo, is filled with celebrating spectators, soldiers, and nurses. Also like Eidenstadt's original, the mood is meant to be wholesomely ecstatic, with the photograph acting as a candid snippet of a jubilant moment in time, rather than a staged and posed photograph of knowing subjects.
The two male models in the Lachapelle photo are real-life former couple Bob and Rod Jackson-Paris.


And Bob Paris?  He was the first professional bodybuider who come out as gay back in 1989.  In 2006, Flex Magazine ranked Bob Paris the most aesthetic athlete in the history of bodybuilding. Bob and Rod belonged to the same gym I did in Tumwater, Washington, but the owners asked them to leave when they kissed each other during a workout. Bob and Rod separated in the mid-1990s.  According to the last report, he legally married (in Canada) his now husband, Brian, and they now live in British Columbia.