US army allows gay march uniforms

DHAKA: The US military will for the first time allow its members to wear uniform at a gay pride march.

The permission was granted for the Gay Pride Parade in San Diego, California, on Saturday, a military-wide Pentagon directive said.

The memo said the move was a one-off exception for this year`s march only.

It comes after a longstanding ban on openly gay people serving in the US military - known as "don`t ask, don`t tell" - was ended last year.

"Based on our current knowledge of the event and current policies, we hereby are granting approval for service members in uniform to participate in this year`s parade," Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence Rene Bardorf said in the directive.

Permission was given on condition that military personnel take part in a personal capacity only and adhere to the US military`s standards on uniform wear, she added.

Numerous service personnel marched at last year`s San Diego event, but wore T-shirts bearing the name of their service branch instead of uniforms.

Source: BBC

BDST: 1645 HRS, JUL 20, 2012
AKA