You should also know that I have posted on how the training has basically been shoved down the throats of military members and that those who oppose the gay lifestyle because of their religious convictions are SOL (sorry, out of luck). The training that all members must go through focuses on what the ramifications will be to the member if they are not fully behind inclusion of gays into the service.
Now that the new policy is just days away from being enacted, the gay activists (who have probably never, and never will, served) are stepping up their demands. Not only do they want the gays to be allowed to serve openly, which could be considered mission accomplished, they are shooting for the whole ball of wax.
For a person married to a service member there are many benefits. Access to free health care, death benefits, free or subsidized housing, commissary and Base Exchange privileges and other items not available to the general public are just some of the wonderful privileges given to married couples. These activists (who have probably never, and will never, served) are now asking to be treated as if they were married.
Aubrey Savis, director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said in his group’s August letter to Mr. Panetta that “we fully understand” that the Defense of Marriage Act prevents him for extending all benefits offered to married heterosexuals.
However, Mr. Sarvis identified 11 benefits that he says the law permits if regulations are changed, including military family housing, access to commissaries and exchanges, marriage and family counseling, legal aid and joint duty assignments.
OK, so he wants to open a Pandora’s Box. Before I was married to my lovely bride, I had other long-term relationships, including co-habitation. In fact, before my wife and I were married, we lived together for nearly a year. Before she and I were married she was not allowed free access to the base and all of the benefits afforded to military spouses. I could bring her on base as long as I provided a voucher or was with her during base entry. But she could not enter the commissary nor could she make purchases at the Base Exchange.
I guess that regulations could be changed to allow access to all these benefits to the other member of a non-married couple. Since the DoD is standby the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), it cannot recognize marriages granted in states like New York and Iowa that allow same-sex marriages. So, the only way to allow for a homosexual couple to be allowed access to base benefits is to allow access to anyone who is involved with a relationship with a military member. Are they asking that gay military members be given special privileges over their heterosexual counterparts? Would they have the regulations written to say that one must be gay for that partner to be allowed access? Are they say that heterosexual couples must be excluded from these regulations.
Maybe this would be an excerpt from the newly revised regulation.
1. Homosexual members who have a partner will be permitted to allow this homosexual partner access to base benefits to included health care, death benefits, commissary and Base Exchange access, and other program offered to traditional married couples.
2. Heterosexual couples who are not married will not be afforded any of these privileges because they don’t have a powerful politically active base. So you straight people who are not married but are a long-term couple are just screwed while we allow gay people who are not married (because we don’t allow same-sex marriages due to DOMA) all of the benefits of being married.
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