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Navy Vet in Same-Sex Marriage Demands VA Benefits
Military.com ^ | October 14, 2011 | Libor Jany

Posted on 10/14/2011 12:06:48 PM PDT by Sarajevo

NEW HAVEN -- A disabled Navy veteran from Connecticut is going to court to try to force the Department of Veterans Affairs to recognize her marriage to her longtime female partner.

Carmen Cardona, who filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims on Thursday, plans to challenge the constitutionality of a federal statute -- and its legal cousin the Defense of Marriage Act, the controversial 1996 law that prohibits the U.S. government from recognizing same-sex marriages -- cited when the VA denied her spousal disability benefits, her legal team said.

(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Connecticut
KEYWORDS: agenda; deathofthemilitary; doaskdotell; gaymarriage; homosexualagenda; lesbonaziagenda; lesbonazism; lesbopsychoagenda; navy
Anyone thinking that gay rights were never agenda driven needs their head examined.
1 posted on 10/14/2011 12:06:50 PM PDT by Sarajevo
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To: Sarajevo

Didn’t see that coming/s


2 posted on 10/14/2011 12:09:11 PM PDT by Bitsy (!)
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To: Sarajevo
Unclear statement. Is the vet aplying for benefits for herself? If so, what is the problem? Did she get put out of the military during DADT? Or is the "spouse" needing benefits?

This is just the tip of the iceberg and it is still mostly under water--when revealed, it will be huge and tie up the courts for a decade or so. So glad for these loons, since we have nothing more to worry about.

vaudine

3 posted on 10/14/2011 12:19:06 PM PDT by vaudine
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To: Sarajevo

“Cardona was first diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome in 1994, she said, which was exacerbated by years of working in naval aviation, dismantling aircraft panels without the aid of power tools.”


4 posted on 10/14/2011 12:20:22 PM PDT by Jacquerie
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To: Bitsy

Yep and you know what?

The states and the military and now Obama, have made this bed.

There was an agenda for sure, but the door has been opened.

If you are going to say they are married, and that they can serve openly, how can you now deny benefits?


5 posted on 10/14/2011 12:21:18 PM PDT by ltc8k6
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To: Sarajevo

gay agenda>>>>>>>>

All about the Benjamins and making normal people pay the freight (medical etc) for their wacko “life partners”


6 posted on 10/14/2011 12:23:46 PM PDT by dennisw (What good is a used up world and how could it be worth having - - Sting)
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To: Sarajevo

Lesbian veteran wants the federal government to ignore DOMA (a current valid federal statute signed into law by Bill Clinton that forbids the federal government from pretending that two persons of the same gender can marry).


7 posted on 10/14/2011 12:26:41 PM PDT by Notwithstanding
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To: Sarajevo

Talk about perversion of justice.


8 posted on 10/14/2011 12:28:00 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: Jacquerie

Next question,sir—and I respect your opine. Was she serving on active duty knowing she had a sexual orientation as a homosexual? If so —then she ought to have been discharged as a LIAR. Because the Law—when we had a Moral and Religious Congress was that homosexuality was not compatible with Military service and the policy invented by that “unusually good LIAR Bill Clinton did not change the Law It only said Don’t ask— Don’t tell—and when I ,as a Vet wrote to the man I had in an act of stupidity helped put in Office the first time — The White House changed my Christian name to Seig Heil on the return envelope. But the MCM for 1994 edition suggested the LAW did not change under Clinton it appears to have been changed under Obama— but IMO nobody serving under the old Law ought claim benefits under the new —as they contracted under a Law they had no intent of honoring—i.e the served a LIE.


9 posted on 10/14/2011 12:29:44 PM PDT by StonyBurk (ring)
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To: ltc8k6

And everyone should have known this is how they will go after individual states on the gay marriage issue.

Because these soldiers live in states. Most that don’t recognize gay marriage. They will file lawsuits against each states’ national guards/whatever to force recognition of gay marriage if they get “married” in states that don’t care if you’re a resident or not.

THe larger issue will be now the federal govt has a pro-gay-agenda slant but many states are pro-traditional marriage, on marriage (a states rights issue) the ultimate fear/expectation is that the federal govt will usurp the issue.

When the fed govt was not pro-gay-marriage (ie staying out of it, not recognizing it), this position allowed states to determine if they’d support it or not. Once the fedgov took a pro- position on it, it now will force the states to come in line with it.


10 posted on 10/14/2011 12:36:21 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: ltc8k6
In 1993 I walked out of the retirement ceremony for a female O-5.

She used the occasion to harangue the assembled guests, which included three O-6s and an Admiral. By her measure, society in general and the USN in particular were great oppressors. She charged that for years she was prevented from revealing her deep love for another babe, whom she presented on stage. (Not bad looking BTW). She went on for a few more minutes before I decided I had way more than enough.

I didn't say anything, just got up and left. All eyes were on me. I was sure she would shout something to me, but she did not. That was a moment of good judgment on her part.

My blood still boils over this almost 20 years later. Gotta run now.

11 posted on 10/14/2011 12:38:24 PM PDT by Jacquerie
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To: Sarajevo

Liberals promised us this would never happen ~ 2004, now they are calling for the bill’s DOMA repeal.


12 posted on 10/14/2011 12:40:58 PM PDT by sickoflibs (Cain :"My parents didn't raise me to beg the government for other peoples money")
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To: StonyBurk
You should change your tag line to “ringtrue”. What you have said is the truth beyond a reasonable doubt. I don't want to pay for her! I was a jet mech too and I can out of it just fine. n/s
13 posted on 10/14/2011 12:42:16 PM PDT by cameraeye (A happy kuffir!)
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To: Secret Agent Man
Talk about perversion of justice.

Justice for the perverted?

14 posted on 10/14/2011 12:45:38 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (I never win at Scrable.)
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To: Sarajevo

How about a charge of fraud? She’s working, apparently at a well paying job, while collecting disability benefits from the feds...

And seriously, you can be on disability, then get married, and then your spouse suddenly gets money as well? There’s a program to immediately ax.


15 posted on 10/14/2011 12:45:50 PM PDT by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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To: vaudine
From the article:

Carmen Cardona, who filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims on Thursday, plans to challenge the constitutionality of a federal statute -- and its legal cousin the Defense of Marriage Act, the controversial 1996 law that prohibits the U.S. government from recognizing same-sex marriages -- cited when the VA denied her spousal disability benefits, her legal team said.

The Puerto Rico native, now living in Norwich, said she was unable to collect her veterans' benefits because her wife is of the same sex. The couple has been married since 2010.

Most veterans receive an increase in their monthly disability benefits when they marry.

"They [the VA] stated this outright: 'You cannot get benefits ... because your spouse is not a male,' " Cardona said over the telephone Thursday. "I'm not the only one that is homosexual, so I would like for everybody to hear about this and come forward.

16 posted on 10/14/2011 12:53:58 PM PDT by Sarajevo (Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?)
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To: Jacquerie

Whatever else she was, she was disrespectful to the law and disrespectful to what was likely a majority of her immediate peers, because with or without DADT, her self-imposed DADT had in fact worked in her case, for her and for the Navy, because while she practiced DADT by choice, so did her peers, by not “outing her” because possibly on some professional level she had earned their respect, in spite of what most of them knew about her personal life. They hadn’t made it an issue because she hadn’t made it an issue.

Then she used her retirement party to stand up and trash a system that I believe had worked in her favor.

Up until the very last minute, her “sexuality” was not an issue to most of those around her, until she, she herself had to finally make it an issue.

I think she dishonored her own service.


17 posted on 10/14/2011 1:41:00 PM PDT by Wuli
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To: StonyBurk

All I know is what is in the column. While it does not say directly one way or the other, I do not believe she was not lesbian when she enlisted. Just my opinion, but yes, I think she lied.


18 posted on 10/14/2011 3:43:10 PM PDT by Jacquerie
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To: Wuli
Then she used her retirement party to stand up and trash a system that I believe had worked in her favor.

Exactly. Despicable.

19 posted on 10/14/2011 3:47:05 PM PDT by Jacquerie
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