The best thing about this news his how quietly it made headlines—without protests or emotional meltdown from the right. The New York Times reports that on Friday Tammy S. Smith was decorated as brigadier general, her wife Tracey Hepner pinning the star to her uniform at a ceremony at the women’s center in Arlington National Cemetery and making her the first openly gay individual to be decorated with the status of general in the U.S. Army.

Smith was deployed to Afghanistan for a little over a year as a colonel in 2010. She and Ms. Hepner married in Washington, DC in 2011.

The real news here is that it’s been almost a year since Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was repealed, and…nothing. The U.S. Armed services hasn’t spiraled into a bacchanalia of gay orgy fiends hell-bent on converting the children of conservative families to a family-wrecking lifestyle of debauchery. It has simply continued to be an organization of good and hard-working people living their lives, achieving, etc.

The anti-gay crusaders should take note, and we should all give Dan Choi and all those who fought tirelessly for this latest victory in this country’s long tradition of civil rights progress a major pat on the back. Well done.

Image: Atlantic