Gay Marine kiss portrays a new normal in U.S.

A few days ago, a U.S. Marine returned to the U.S. after six months in Afghanistan. Spotting his new honey among the people waiting, he rushed forward and planted an enthusiastic kiss -- their first kiss, as it turns out. A friend snapped a picture and posted it on Facebook.

And all heck broke loose.

Under other circumstances, it would have been an event noteworthy only for being ordinary, a scene we've seen played out a million times. But we've never seen it like this. That's because Sgt. Brandon Morgan's "honey" is a guy named Dalan Wells, and that photo of them playing same-sex tonsil hockey thus manages to simultaneously affirm and subvert a cherished bit of patriotic iconography: the returning serviceman being greeted by the one he loves.

The image forces us to see an old thing in a new way. It is a sign of the times -- jarringly so for some.

SNIP

As it happens, there is serendipity in the timing of this controversy. It comes, after all, just months after the mortifying episode wherein a gay soldier serving in Iraq was booed by the audience at a GOP debate while the presidential contenders stood by and said nothing.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120306/OPINION05/203060318/Leonard-Pitts-Jr-Gay-Marine-kiss-portrays-a-new-normal-in-U-S-?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs

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