Michelle Obama Shares Her State of the Union Box with Lesbians

Two openly gay women will join the First Lady in her box (Yes, we’re terrible, Muriel) Tuesday night at President Obama’s third State of the Union address.

Col. Ginger Wallace (top right), an Air Force intelligence officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was the first military officer to have a same-sex partner participate in a rank promotion “pinning-on” ceremony after the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Kathy Knopf, Wallace’s partner of over a decade, helped pin the new Colonel rank on Wallace’s jacket in December. Wallace said she “could not be more honored” to represent the “thousands of gays and lesbians who have served.”

Analytical chemist Lorelei Kilker (bottom right), a beneficiary of the National Equal Pay Task Force, will also sit with Mrs. Obama in her gallery Tuesday night. Kilker was one of a class of women awarded back wages and remedial relief after an investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission into alleged systematic sex discrimination by her former employer. Since the creation of the National Equal Pay Task Force by the president in January 2010, EEOC has obtained almost $50 million for victims of sex-based wage discrimination.

Enjoy the inclusiveness of the Obama administration while you can, folks, because Romney and Gingrich wouldn't let lesbians anywhere near their wives' boxes. Well, perhaps Gingrich would—but only in the bedroom.