[OBSCURA] On a historic same-sex military couple's kiss in Victoria

[rfmcdonald]

This kiss got picked up widely, by Towleroad and Joe. My. God. and the CBC. The Victoria Buzz has a nice report.

HMCS Winnipeg returned to Esquimalt today after an a eight-and-a-half month deployment in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

The first kiss following a long deployment at sea is a time-honored tradition at Navy homecomings and for the first time in history, that kiss took place between two men.

With cheers erupting from a crowd at CFB Esquimalt’s dockyard on Tuesday, Master Seaman Francis Legare was finally able to embrace his partner Corey Vautour, after more than eight months at sea and they shared the first-ever kiss between two men.

The Huffington Post goes into greater detail about this custom.

Sailors buy raffle tickets — one for $2 or $5 for three — for a chance to be chosen as the first to walk off the ship and share a kiss with their spouse or partner. The money collected through the raffle is used for family-related events.

The HMCS Winnipeg's crew of 250 had been in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific for eight months.

Legare’s previous deployments have taken him to the Arabian Sea for maritime security and counter-terrorism operations. This latest voyage separated him from Vautour for exactly 255 days — he kept count.

“Now I’m back. I’m here. It’s just unreal, it feels great. I’m just speechless right now,” Legare told reporters on Tuesday.