Gay At Sea - A Look At The US Coast Guard’s LGBT Community - gCaptain
▻https://gcaptain.com/gay-at-sea-a-look-at-the-us-coast-guards-lgbt-community
Image via USCG Office of Diversity and Inclusion (CG-12B)
Despite the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) in 2011, and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 2013, total equality for the LGBT community is still a work in progress. One of the ways the Coast Guard is helping its LGBT members is by creating an open dialogue.
“People say I don’t look ‘gay,’” said Fairburn. “But what does ‘gay’ look like?”
“Well, actually I look pretty ‘gay,’” Lt. Cmdr. Hillary Allegretti, the executive officer of Marine Safety Office Cleveland, said as the audience erupted with laughter.
This was the beginning of the first-ever dialogue of LGBT equality amongst shipmates in the open setting of a leadership conference.
Allegretti, Fairburn and Petty Officer 1st Class Audrey Russo, a liaison officer at Coast Guard flight school in Pensacola, Florida, participated in a panel focused on LGBT equality in the Coast Guard during the Women’s Leadership Symposium held at Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan in March 2016.
Lt. Commander Hillary Allegretti, USCG, and wife, Megan Allegretti.
Petty Officer 1st Class Sasha Fairburn, a company commander at Training Center Cape May, thinks the topic is still taboo for many people.