Kandahar Pride

American service members hold Pride celebration in deployed environment

By Brandon Matheson • June 28, 2013 7:48 pm EDT

American service members at Afghanistan’s Kandahar Airfield talk about celebrating Pride. US Department of Defense

United States service members deployed to the Kandahar Airfield, in Afghanistan, are celebrating what American Defense officials say is the first Pride event held in a deployed environment.

In a Department of Defense news report, service members discuss what Pride means to them and what they hope to accomplish.

Eric Fanning, the first openly gay acting secretary of the US Air Force, addressed a Pride reception held June 25 at the Pentagon. In his speech, Fanning noted that “gay pride” was being celebrated on American military bases worldwide, including Afghanistan, where homosexuality is a crime.

Defense officials also unveiled a poster to celebrate Pride month, praising LGBT service members and civilian workers for their “dedicated service to our country.”

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On a new career adventure, I perform as a Stage Hypnotist (clubs, fundraisers, private shows, etc; www.BrandonTheHypnotist.com), as well as maintain a private practice in downtown Toronto as a Certified Consulting Hypnotist and Hypnotherapist (in short, I use hypnosis to help people overcome everyday problems.) Between August 1993 and January 2016, I worked with Pink Triangle Press (publisher of this website) as Publisher & Editor-in-chief and Director of Publishing. I joined PTP in August 1993 to establish the Ottawa operation and launch (then called) Capital Xtra, later rebranded to Xtra Ottawa. During my 22.5 year tenure with PTP, I lived and worked in Ottawa, Vancouver, and since 2001, Toronto. At some point, I served as Publisher & Editor-in-chief of every print product PTP published.