In a historic move, the US Senate has confirmed gay man Eric Fanning to be the US Secretary of the Army. The first ever openly gay US Secretary of the Army, Fanning is also now the highest-ranking openly gay official at the Pentagon in its history. Nominated by President Barack Obama in September - five years after the end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell - Fanning faced a lengthy wait to be confirmed. A unanimous voice vote confirmed him on Tuesday 17 May. Matt Thorn, Executive Director of OutServe-SLDN, a non-profit organisation advocating for full LGBTI equality in the US military, says “Eric’s sexual orientation has absolutely no bearing on his ability to do this job; nor was it the reason for his nomination. “But this milestone of having an openly gay individual in this high level position within the Department of Defense will help to continue to set a tone of understanding and respect for the LGBT community throughout the armed services.” Fanning was previously the Army secretary’s principal advisor on management and operation and the undersecretary of the Air Force.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 19th May 2016 - 10:56am