I'll just leave this here.

[Courtesy Flush]

[defendandprotect]

1. kr

[cbayer]

2. K & R

[Thunderstruck]

3. We live in one fucked up society people.

[Initech]

45. [phone]

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. ...

:cry:

[Mnemosyne]

5. ...

[myrna minx]

6. .

:cry:

[JitterbugPerfume]

7. so sad

:cry:

[pinboy3niner]

8. From last Memorial Day...

:patriot:

[TriMera]

9. k & r

[cliffordu]

10. K&R

[Morning Dew]

11. Leonard Matlovich

K&R

[Blue Owl]

12. powerful stuff

:patriot:

[xchrom]

13. a very sad recommend. nt

[Jmaxfie1]

14. K&R ...agreed, N/t

[robertpaulsen]

15. You know, when someone named Courtesy Flush says, "I'll just leave this here.", I expect the worst.

Thank you for shattering my expectations. Recommended!

[spanone]

16. damn, that's strong.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

17. Such a poignant message.

Twenty-three years after his passing and thirty-six years after he took a stand we're still fighting for equal rights for GLBT.

[cui bono]

18. That just made my eyes tear up. n/t

[donheld]

19. cool

:thumbsup:

[Scottybeamer70]

20. If that doesn't

put tears in your eyes, then you might not be breathing!

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

21. K&R

[barbtries]

22. is this a real headstone?

whenever i visit a cemetery i look around for my daughter's dates. before i even read what this one said, i notice that this person shares her birthday.
i'd love to learn that it was at Arlington nat'l cemetery.

[Hissyspit]

25. Yes, Leonard Matlovich, first vet to publicly fight military ban on gays.

A Vietnam vet. He died in 1988 of HIV. He is buried in the Congressional Cemetery in the same row as J. Edgar Hoover. His name is not the tombstone, just the inscription and dates.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki?search=Leonard+Matlovich

[Morning Dew]

28. It's gotta be Leonard Matlovich

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2660

[lonestarnot]

23. Wow.

:(

[Buddha2B]

24. K & R

Lest we Forget

[RainDog]

26. k&r n/t

[bigwillq]

27. K and R

:hug:

[DeSwiss]

29. K&R n/t

[nolabear]

30. So, I write poetry. And this reminds me of a recent one.

Survived by His Longtime Companion

It does not mentioned the wedding ring
or the nights curled on the other side
of the bed, for fear of hurting him.

When he cried out in the dark, it wasn’t
Mother, Father, Brother, Sister
But Husband, Beloved, My Own.

The obituary, two lives in three inch summation,
reads “survived by his longtime companion”
who, after, believes the term is—how to put it—

relative.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

31. Oh my

Rest in peace, Leonard.

:cry: :patriot:

[Duppers]

32. that quote has been in my FB profile

since day one of my FB acct.

[Enthusiast]

33. K&R! nt

[CommonSensePLZ]

34. I'm the 200th rec! Sweet! What do I win?

=)

[OneGrassRoot]

35. K&R n/t

[Highway61]

36. Sometimes there are just no words

:cry:

[Chorophyll]

37. ...

[Shagbark Hickory]

38. Effective & funny title as well. +1

[Shining Jack]

39. K&R

:(

[WillyT]

40. K & R !!!

:kick:

[ElsewheresDaughter]

41. wow that says it all

[LeonardMatlovich_Com]

42. The story behind the stone....

Yes, this is the stone of my late friend Leonard Matlovich, the first gay service member to purposely out himself in order to try to overturn the military ban. That was 1975, 18 years before anyone had ever heard of DADT. This "Good Morning America" video documents how unprecedented that was: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb_NPUSCI2c The photo below shows the ensuing TIME magazine cover that shocked the nation. He chose not to put his name on the stone he designed (only his last name appears at the foot of a granite frame around his grave) as he wanted it to be a memorial to all gay veterans, and chose not to be buried in Arlington because only VIPs such as the Kennedy brothers are allowed to have anything but a generic stone with no personal messages. Another reason was that Congressional Cemetery is also the final resting place of Peter Doyle, thought to be poet Walt Whitman's greatest love. And, yes, he chose the plot and row he did because he wanted a kind of last laugh on the possibly gay but definitely homophobic FBI legend J. Edgar Hoover whose family plot is several yards down. The plot of Clyde Tolson, Hoover's longtime companion and some believe lover, is only four plots next to Leonard's. He liked to imagine homophobic admirers of Hoover having to pass his grave with its now famous inscription on their way to pay homage to the ogre. For more information about Leonard, including other video of him as well as clips of other gay vets such as Dan Choi honoring him, photos of other gays who chose to be buried near him, the story of the decades-long fight against the ban (the very first gay protest in the US was against the ban—five years before Stonewall), and a gallery of other well-known gay veterans such as Harvey Milk, Frank Kameny, Rev. Troy Perry, et al., please go to www.leonardmatlovich.com Many thanks to the original poster.

[SpankMe]

43. Two Americas

When I see stuff like this it makes me so angry at anti-gay social conservatives that it merges in to hatred and makes me feel bad about myself (for doing the hating).

I can't for the life of me understand the massive amount of stubbornness and energy expended by certain members of our society on villifying gays and keeping them down. It's completely irrational. These people will never come around.

Liberals and conservatives in this country are doomed to living completely separate lives, independent, under our own sets of rules, never interacting or crossing each other's paths - all within the same society. It's nuts.

If they put half the energy and money into feeding people and creating jobs, instead of being destructive, this would be a better place.

[librechik]

44. Thank you--Don't be a stranger!

you are always welcome at DU

[era veteran]

46. This turned up cross/cross posted on my Facebook page

Too late for a rec but would have.