US army allows gay march uniforms
International Desk
banglanews24.com
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