I live in Belgium where gay marriage has been made legal a couple of years ago. And when i read the newspaper this morning my heart leapt.
The newspaper carried an article about a 49 year old paratrooper who got married to a welsh man. Apparently his marriage was also his coming out. Unfortunately the day after the wedding, he discovered that some of his colleagues were very critical about him, claiming that a gay man in the army is contradictory to the image of 'the virile man' that a soldier represents.
His superiors were very supportive however, so was the representative of the soldier's union who claimed that 'because paratroopers have a special task to do, they shouldn't think of themselves as special people who think they're somehow better than others.' He further stated that 'people who react so negatively have not understood anything of the policy of diversity that the belgian army has been implementing over the last couple of years.' He added that further diversity training was needed and that he knew of other gay men and women soldiers, some of them in combat units, who have experienced no problems in being accepted by their colleagues.
Here's a nice picture of the happy couple. I wish them lots of happy years together.
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m312/Belbbmfan/para.jpgFabienne