Marine Sgt. Brandon Morgan lived in Oakdale, California as a self-described “fanatical Christian.” He joined the Marines as a distraction from his mundane life as a deli clerk, and also because he felt he wanted to be a voice for God in the armed services. He describes his marital situation as a big mistake that was based on his faith and beliefs, mistaking a friendship for love, which it turned out not to be. He’d later say that it took a lot of courage to finally face who he was and to admit to himself that he was a gay man.
After joining the Marines on April 1st of 2007, he was based at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. There, he met a Windward Oahu artist who worked on the base named Dalan Wells and who helped him through the emotions involved with the divorce. Sgt. Morgan related later, "I honestly knew I was in love with him from the first moment I met him."
Trouble began brewing for the two star-crossed men almost immediately. When Brandon asked Dalan out, Dalan said no and had some fairly good reasons, the first of which was their age difference – Sgt. Morgan is now 25 and Wells is 38. Also with the ax over Brandon’s neck back in 2007 with the “Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell” (DADT) gay witch hunts of the Bush era, Wells wasn’t willing to risk ruining the marine’s budding military career. With that much discouragement, neither completely told each other just how they felt, and they began a four-year close friendship instead that went no further.
Morgan would go on to tell an interviewer recently that, tragically, that meant that neither actually knew just how much in love each was with the other.
Brandon was already a month into his third deployment to Afghanistan when DADT was repealed in September of 2011. He was proudly serving his country with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 363, “The Lucky Red Lions.” They were the company that lost six fellow marines to a crash in Helmand Province just last January.
With the restrictions abolished by President Obama, and the backing of the Pentagon, Sgt. Morgan began coming out of the closet to his fellow marines serving at Camp Leatherneck and was surprised to discover that the very Marines who supposedly had resisted the most concerning gays in the military accepted him as an equal soldier and a trusted friend. He was quoted as saying later, “I was a little worried, to be honest. I was afraid that some people’s views of me might change. But that was just my own personal misgiving, a fear I had to overcome. I should have had more faith in my Marines than that. I’m not always right, and I was very glad I was wrong about that.”
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jet Gardner
He says he's not a hero but his service to our country proves he is.
2 - Jet Gardner
A youTube video should've been embedded with the article. click here
3 - Brian
A courageous, kind-hearted American hero, he is.
4 - Tom
I thought the photo was a beautiful thing when I saw it a few days ago. Now that you tell the whole story, how very much more beautiful!
5 - Jet Gardner
Let's see how long it takes for the haters to make it ugly Tom... an thanks
6 - John Resch
Thank you for this great article.
Brandon is a hero in my book
7 - Jet Gardner
Thanks, I appreciate your words-he's my hero too. I'm trying to write more often-it's been tough.
8 - Glenn Contrarian
Hi, Jet -
I hope that the sailors that I knew whose careers were ended by DADT find a measure of solace that the military has gotten past the prejudice - at least officially. There will always be prejudice, but as the years go by, those who are prejudiced against LGBT's will be seen in the same view as those who are racist...and that is as it should be.
A side note on the Times Square kiss - I'm a retired sailor and my Darling is a nurse, and when we went to NYC this last time we just had to recreate the moment...and with the love that I feel for my Darling just thinking about that kiss, all I can do is hope that the two men you wrote about have a love just as deep, and just as happy. Their first kiss - that's pretty cool.
And Jet - great article. I guess that's why the conservatives are staying away from it in droves.
9 - Jet Gardner
Thanks Glen... I'm hoping for the day when this isn't even newsworthy.
10 - Jet Gardner
I don't write often any more, but when I do I try to make it worth the wait. Since my recent right arm reconstruction it's hard to touchtype because my pinkie's numb, so when it isn't repeatedly typing a p,/,;, or a[ it's resting under the damned mouse until i realize it's there.
The biggest bitch is being unable to use the right shift, return or backspace key without a lot of cussing...
it's always something.
11 - Dr Dreadful
Do you have any original parts left now, Jet?
I hope there's a diagram somewhere in case you fall to bits!
12 - Jet Gardner
I'm getting weird TR screens that there's tech trouble and my last comment didn't post.
anyone else?
13 - Jet Gardner
Anyway, Doc I just lost the middle toe of my right foot to an infection that threatened my whole foot if I didn't have it amputated.
...don't get me started
14 - Dr Dreadful
If I didn't know better, Jet, I'd say you were trying to get into the afterlife by stealth.
I've got an old copy of IBM ViaVoice somewhere that I could mail to you. Might come in handy if typing's becoming a hassle. It does date from the late 90s and I seem to recall you got a new computer a couple of years ago, so it might not even be compatible with your system. But it's yours if you want it.
As far as the intermittent screens of death you've been seeing, I'm getting them too. We wobble along.
15 - Jet Gardner
It's nerve damage at my elbow, we're hoping physical therapy will relieve it, but thanks so much for offering.
The fun part is spontaneously having these random bursts of excrusiating (sic) pain like I've just bashed my funny bone.
...we wobble on indeed
16 - Fritz Keppler
I've been on a multiday high since seeing that photograph Sunday morning. Thank you for writing a succinct summary of all the events leading up to and following the event. Seeing the photo has given me more hope for the world than I've had in a very long time.
17 - Jet Gardner
May we all be destined to get such a kiss Fritz. I enjoyed researching and telling this a lot.
thanks
Jet
18 - Jet Gardner
Thank god for Adsense reports. I may have only about 8 comments but I've had over 1,250 readers in just the last two days, otherwise I'd be really discouraged.
19 - Fritz Keppler
I've put a link on my FB wall as well as on our Brokeback Mountain Forum, Dave Cullen, I hope that might draw a few readers. I really like it a lot!
20 - Jet Gardner
Thanks, it took me 5 years to perfect the Brokeback novel, I'm glad for the help
21 - Jet Gardner
fritz when I clicked your link in #19 all I got was an Amazon page, please post the link to your forum again.
Here's a link to the question/answer guide covering both Ennis and Jack's lives from both of their births to their deaths (1943-2006)
Here's a link to the novel itself expanded to include elements of both the short story and the screenplay, and all the mysteries are solved that neither answered and you find out what happened to Ennis afterward to his eventual death in 2006.
22 - Jet Gardner
Update: Santorum backs nullifying existing gay marriages
There are 18,000 married gay and lesbian couples in California and at least 131,000 nationwide according to the 2010 census, conducted before New York state legalized same-sex marriage in July.
Rick Santorum says he'll try to unmarry all of them if he's elected president.
Once the U.S. Constitution is amended to prohibit same-gender marriages, "their marriage would be invalid," the former Pennsylvania senator said Dec. 30 in an NBC News interview.
"We can't have 50 different marriage laws in this country," he said. "You have to have one marriage law."
23 - Glenn Contrarian
Y'know, I really, really hope Santorum will be the GOP nominee...because Americans are more and more beginning to support LGBT rights. It wouldn't be the flip side of Nixon v. McGovern, but it would be an Obama landslide nonetheless.
24 - Jet Gardner
The problem with that Glenn is that the only reliable block of voters are rabid right wing teabaggers taken to the poles in church busloads.
Dems have no motivations and most will take the attitude that Santorum can't possibly win and not even bother after a long Tuesday's work day.
25 - Fritz Keppler
Hey Jet, here's the link to where the discussion of the photo started in our Gays in the Military thread. I think this is on the open part of the Forum, but I'm not sure. I did include your name and this link when quoting your article.