President Barack Obama appointed an openly lesbian Army veteran to the Board of Visitors at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point July 5. This is the first time an out gay or lesbian person will advise the administration on West Point.
Brenda S. “Sue” Fulton, an Army veteran who graduated from West Point in 1980, is the executive director and co-founder of Knights Out, an organization of LGBT West Point alumni and supporters.
“Sue’s appointment demonstrates the commitment our nation’s most hallowed institutions have to equal treatment of everyone – a quintessential American value,” OutServe spokesman Jonathan Hopkins, a West Point graduate and a former Army captain, said in a written statement, according to a Bloomberg piece.
Fulton served for five years in the Army Signal Corps, being honorably discharged with the rank of captain.
“I’m proud to have the opportunity to support the cadets who will lead our Army in the coming years,” said Fulton in an Outserve press release. “And I’m pleased that the President is clearly setting the stage for a post-‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ military with appointments like this. It is my honor to continue to serve the Academy and the Army that I love.”
Also recently appointed was Army veteran and former U.S. RepresentativePatrick Murphy, a vocal opponent of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
