Free Republic

<p>The first same-sex marriage at West Point’s Cadet Chapel will be celebrated Saturday – when a military veteran and her partner exchange vows roughly one year after President Obama ended the military policy banning openly gay people from serving in the military.</p>

I could be wrong about this but here goes: This grotesque bill, see link below, was passed on Thursday. I didn't listen to talk radio on Friday but I suspect it wasn't mentioned by Rush, Hannity or Levin. I could be wrong. My guess is our talk radio pundits won't touch it. The fix is in. THe Pink Hand touches all, even Jim Demint. Cowards.Original thread link. Senate Approves Bill that Legalizes Sodomy and Bestiality in U.S. Military

Shortly after the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the DoD announced that certain benefit programs are open to servicemember designated beneficiaries, “regardless of sexual orientation.”

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Marine Gen. James F. Amos, the face of opposition in the military to lifting the ban on gays serving openly, now acknowledges his concern has proven unfounded that repeal would undermine the war effort. In fact, he says, Marines have embraced the change. In an Associated Press interview, Amos called the repeal in September "a non-event."

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry on Tuesday blasted as “irresponsible” the repeal of the policy that barred openly gay troops from serving in the military, saying “don’t ask, don’t tell” was “working well.” “The idea that the president of the United States wanted to make a political statement using our men and women in the military as the tool for that was irresponsible,” Perry said in an interview with ABC News’ Christiane Amanpour. The ban was lifted in September, ending a provision that President Barack Obama said had forced gay and lesbian service members to “lie about who they are.”...

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.

Gay Military Personnel Ready for First ConventionOutServe Leadership Summit brings together leaders from 48 chapters around world Lisa Leff - The Associated Press October 14, 2011 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The nation's only professional group for active-duty gay military personnel is holding its first conference in Las Vegas this weekend, an event only made possible by the recent lifting of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prohibited gay and lesbian troops from serving openly in the armed forces. The OutServe Leadership Summit is designed to highlight the diversity of gays in the military and the challenges they face, and...

Dr. Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty. (AP Photo.) (CNSNews.com) – A national group representing more than 2,000 military chaplains from evangelical Christian and Orthodox backgrounds said on Wednesday that the Pentagon has launched a “direct assault” on marriage, and the chaplains they endorse will not be allowed to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies under any circumstances.Dr. Ron Crews, executive director of the newly formed Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, said his 2,000-plus membership is concerned about a Sept. 30 Pentagon memorandum that authorizes chaplains and military chapel facilities to be used for “any private ceremony,”...

An organization representing more than 2,000 of the nation’s 5,000 military chaplains announced Wednesday they would join forces with Catholic Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for Military Service, saying they will not perform same-sex ceremonies. The 2,000 members of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, a group of evangelical clergy, are concerned about the Pentagon’s memorandum – issued 10 days after the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal took effect – that authorizes chaplains to officiate “any private ceremony.” A Sept. 20 order lifted the military’s long-standing DADT policy, allowing homosexuals to openly serve in the armed forces. While the...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Toby Keith says gay marriage doesn't bother him and trying to stop it wastes time and money. The country superstar tells "CMT Insider" airing Saturday on CMT that he doesn't see the reason behind getting into people's personal lives. He says refusing a marriage license to people because they are gay won't stop them from living together, so it accomplishes nothing. Keith also weighed in on the military's now-repealed "don't ask, don't tell" policy that banned gays serving openly in uniform. He says that anyone with the training and passion should have the right to defend...

President Barack Obama is headlining the Human Rights Campaign's annual dinner Saturday night, addressing the gay rights group less than two weeks after the military ended its ban on openly gay service members, an effort Obama championed. With the president increasingly focused on his 2012 campaign, some gay advocates believe Obama will wait until after the election to make any significant announcement on his position on gay marriage. "He really has been an incredible champion for the issues that are important to us," Sainz said. "It's fair to say we've made more progress in the past two years than we...

Pentagon makes provisions for same-sex marriage mug.cnn By: CNN Wire Staff (CNN) - Ten days after the military dumped its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays and lesbians in the military, the Pentagon has issued new rules allowing military chaplains to perform same-sex marriages....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon has decided that military chaplains may perform same-sex unions, whether on or off a military installation. The ruling announced Friday by the Pentagon's personnel chief follows the Sept. 20 repeal of a law that had prohibited gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal appeals court refused Thursday to decide the constitutionality of the military's now-repealed "don't ask, don't tell" policy banning openly gay troops, saying the issue has been resolved since Americans can enlist and serve in the armed forces without regard to sexual orientation. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco tossed out a lawsuit that had challenged the military policy as a violation of gay service members' civil rights. In doing so, the appeals court also dismissed a Southern California trial judge's year-old ruling that the policy was...

With homosexuals now able to serve openly in the military, the gay rights movement’s next battleground is to persuade the Obama administration to end the armed forces’ ban on “transgenders,” a group that includes transsexuals and cross-dressers. “Our position is that the military should re-examine the policy, the medical regulations, so as to allow open service for transgender people,” said Vincent Paolo Villano, spokesman for the 6,000-member Center for Transgender Equality. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), which pushed to end the military’s gay ban, is urging President Obama to sign an executive order prohibiting discrimination based on “gender identity.”...

In a press conference with Adm. Mike Mullen Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta joyfully announce September 20, 2011 as a “historic day.” This is the day that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was repealed. The repeal is a blatant use of the military to shape public opinion and force the homosexual agenda and gay marriage on the American people a la Saul Alinsky. Shut up! During the press conference Mr. Panetta said “My hope is that the command structure operating with the standard disciplines that are in place will implement those disciplines and will ensure that harassment doesn’t take...

On Sept. 20, 2011, a date that will live in infamy, the U.S. armed forces were deliberately and successfully attacked by advocates of the scourge of homosexuality. The elimination of the last vestige of moral restraint on sexual perversion in the U.S. military, commonly known as the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, ushers in a new Orwellian era in which the military leadership of our nation will proclaim the unnatural as natural, the unhealthy as healthy and the immoral as moral. On Aug. 25, 2010, before the DADT policy was rescinded by Congress and the current president of the United...

The last three GOP presidential primary debates have been nearly as notable for the actions of audience-members as for the candidates who appeared before them. In California at the MSNBC-Politico debate at the Reagan library, the audience applauded mention of the high number of executions in Texas and Rick Perry's defense of the death penalty. "If you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you're involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice in the state of Texas, and that is...

A gay soldier's question about the end of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy elicited boos from the audience at Thursday night's Republican candidate debate, and a promise from Rick Santorum to reinstate the policy if elected. In a video submission, Stephen Hill told the Republican presidential candidates that he "had to lie about who he was" when he was deployed to Iraq in 2010 because of his sexual orientation, and his fear that he would "lose my job." "My question is, under one of your presidencies, do you intend to circumvent the progress that's been made for gay...

I was stationed on Guam in the mid-1980s. My squadron flew search and rescue while on the island and made regular deployments to sea. Aside from my duties as a naval aviator, I was also a division officer and had enlisted men and women reporting to me. Guam is only 13 degrees north of the equator—beach weather every day. Most military people used the military beaches; I was one of the folks who liked to travel around the island. That’s how I discovered one of my men was gay. He was on the beach with his boyfriend, and although there...