When Marine Sgt. Brandon Morgan returned February 22 from Afghanistan to Hawaii, he never knew the passionate kiss he and his boyfriend, Dalan Wells, shared during their reunion would be an world-wide internet smash. The photo has been displayed on Facebook, Twitter,and other social media outlets. Morgan told the Miami Herald his friend David Lewis snapped the picture and that “with all that was going on , we didn’t even know he was there taking pictures. The world went away for a few minutes.”
Later on Morgan posted pics on his personal Facebook page and then a friend asked him if he could re post them on a Gay Marines page. Hours later the photo of 5’11″ Morgan jumping into 6’6″ Wells’ arms had thousands of views, was seen on countless pages, and was featured on news stories worldwide. As of today the picture has 42,393 likes, 6,903 shares, and 10,300 comments.
Not all the feedback has been positive and one comment drove Brandon Morgan’s mother to tears: “What did you do to mess up as a mother to make him do this?” Morgan defends his mother by saying ” she loves me and my sister, who’s a lesbian. She said , if you don’t like my children and how I raised them, I don’t care. My mother is awesome!”
According to the Huffington Post, the couple recently spoke to Hawaii-based news channel KHON about the significance of the photo. Morgan feels that “love is love. We haven’t fought for more rights or better rights for others. We fought for equal rights and now we have them.” Then Wells went on to say: “Maybe it will give kids who view the photo the courage to hang on.”
