This past Thursday, I walked into the Command Suite of Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune with SPART*A Deputy Communications Director Mark Mazzone and our Community Involvement Coordinator (CIC) Brannon Lawson to seek Command Endorsement. Personally, I'd had meetings before with members of the command seeking support leading up to this meeting and they hadn't ended positively. As we sat down in a small room, we were all ready for battle, prepared for any negative argument there may be... but it wasn't needed. The Executive Officer, CAPT Kurt J. Houser, spoke on his beliefs of equality and expressed his empathy for fellow sailors who had to deal with the hardships of serving under DADT. He gave me time to speak about G.L.A.S.S. and I took the opportunity to talk about why I thought it was needed. The XO agreed and at that point said "Whatever you need, if its within reason, you got it. I don't know exactly how it will happen, but it will happen." At the end of the meeting we had a tentative agreement to recieve Command Endorsement and support from Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune. 11 months later, G.L.A.S.S. Of Camp Lejeune is the 1st Gay-Straight Alliance recognized on a United States Marine Corps Installation. You'd think we'd stop to take a victory lap, but no such thing happened... We went right back to work.
Ibi Iugiter-Always There
HN Peete, R.D.
G.L.A.S.S. of Camp Lejeune
President & Co-Founder
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