West Point Chapel Hosts First Same-Sex Marriage

West Point’s Cadet Chapel, described as the “center for spiritual life” at the U.S. Military Academy, hosted its first same-sex wedding on Saturday.

West Point graduate Brenda Sue Fulton and her partner, Penelope Gnesin, were able to marry at the chapel because New York legalized same-sex marriage last year and President Barack Obama eliminated the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. 

This was the second same-sex wedding on the campus. Last week, a same-sex couple wed at another chapel.

According to the Associated Press, both women live in New Jersey, where same-sex marriages are not recognized. 

“We just couldn’t wait any longer,” Fulton said.

Fulton has “campaigned against the ban on gays in the military as a board member of two groups representing gay and lesbian servicemen and servicewomen.” She said because “none of West Point’s chaplains were authorized by their denominations to perform same-sex weddings,” she had to call on a friend who is chaplain at Dover Air Force Base to officiate the ceremony.