Daniel Hall and Vinny Franchino, who are both captains in the US Army, have become the first active-duty same-sex couple to marry at West Point after they exchanged vows earlier this month.
Hall and Franchino are both Apache helicopter pilots, and met while studying (Hall a senior, Franchino a freshman) at the renowned military training academy.
The pair met in 2009 when former President Bill Clinton's 'don't ask, don't tell' was in effect, which effectively banned all LGBTQI+ people from disclosing their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“We couldn’t tell the truth for fear of what would happen to us,” Franchino told The Times. “So we put it in our minds that we were never going to say we were gay, we were never going to get made fun of, and we were certainly never going to get kicked out of the Army.”
After 'don't ask, don't tell' was finally repealed in 2011, Hall and Franchino went on their first public date.
“That’s where some guy called us both f****ts,” Franchino said.
Franchino said that the pair had been through a lot together - but nothing was as bad as having to conceal their identities and their relationship while serving in the military.
“We’ve experienced everything from people feeling awkward around us to being called faggots while holding hands and walking down the street, stuff like that,” Franchino said.
“But despite what we’ve been through, nothing was worse than having served during the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ years.”
