Posted on 12/25/2010 2:30:04 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
''The partners of gay service members will not at this point be given any special rights or any rights that parallel those of a spouse.''
Bernard Rostker, described by NPR as the former Undersecretary of the Department of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, and someone who's been studying ''Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' for 17 years. Here, Rostker responds to a question about whether the spouses of lesbian and gay servicemembers will receive benefits. Now that DADT is officially on the way out, his opinion of pending Pentagon policy is that the military will not recognize gay partners for marriage benefits. Unmarried heterosexuals do not receive military benefits either, it is reported. (NPR)
The difference is that gay men and women can be legally married in several US States and the District of Columbia, but the discriminatory "Defense of Marriage Act" has barred any Federal recognition of these legal unions since 1996. Military benefits include access to the on-base commissary as well as medical care.
Obama has said that DOMA, in his opinion, needs to be repealed as well, but in an interview with the Advocate earlier this week, he seemed to indicate that the next, more conservative Congress won't be likely to pass such a measure. Obama himself has made numerous statements in recent years only in support of civil unions for gay men and lesbians rather than marriage. This week, the President reiterated that position.
''With respect to the issue of whether gays and lesbians should be able to get married, I've spoken about this recently. As I've said, my feelings about this are constantly evolving. I struggle with this.
''I have friends -- I have people who work for me, who are in powerful, strong, long-lasting gay or lesbian unions. And, they are extraordinary people. And this is something that means a lot to them, and they care deeply about.
''At this point, what I've said, is that my base line is a strong civil union that provides them protections and legal rights that married couples have, and I think that's the right thing to do.
''But I recognize that, from their perspective, it is not enough. And I think this is something that we'll continue to debate, and I personally am going to continue to wrestle with going forward.
[Tapper: But the military is not going to recognize civil unions.]
''I understand, and as I said, this is going to be an issue that is not unique to the military. This is an issue that extends to all of our society. And I think we're all going to have a conversation about it.
President Barack Obama responding to Jake Tapper of ABC News who asked at a press conference: "Is it intellectually consistent that gays and lesbians should be able to fight and die for this country, but they should not able to marry the people they love?"
''I think the country's evolving. And I think there is an inevitability for a national consensus on gay marriage. That is my view. But this is the President's view -- but I think that it is evolving.... And I think you're going to see, you know, the next effort is probably going to be to deal with so called DOMA [Defense of Marriage Act].''
Vice President Joe Biden speaking with George Stephanopoulous of ABC who asked for his opinion about President Obama's statement about marriage for gay men and women. (ABC News)
(VIDEOS AT LINK)
no matter what laws they create, homosexuals are NOT part of the natural order of producing and caring for offspring...they refuse to be "one of us" so to speak....
they can never be considered normal because they are totally different than the pulse of life, which is survivial of the fittest.
How do they prove they are Gay I want to know.
Dear Mr. and Mr. Bumpirate.
You have been drafted into the United States Army effective today. Please report to your.....
Once the Defense of Marriage Act is overturned, the camel will be in the tent. Plan on huge costs for the taxpayer to follow as we give AIDS medical care to homosexual “spouses.”
I heard gay activist Margarethe (Gretha) Cammermeyer, fired in 1992 as a Colonel, with a dishonorable discharge from the Army, talk on KIRO radio Thursday. She specifically said that the next step is to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act so that federal employees would be eligible to include same sex spouses in their benefits package. In the military that would include such things as housing, pay allotments and commissary privileges.
Of course these benefits won't be extended. The repeal of FDR's policy against gays serving in the military has nothing to do with gay rights. It has everything to do with further weakening the United States of America. That has always been their goal all along. Granting benefits to gay spouses will do nothing to further that goal.
I can’t believe this man!!! Now the he KNOWS that the repeal of DOMA is not a possibility with the incoming Congress he makes himself out to be a champion of the cause. Are gays THAT stupid???
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
And the sun doesn’t rise in the east.
True but..you can easily prove your gender or race but Homosexual??? How do they prove they are? Could I claim to be black or an Indian to get benefits?? And that is what this is about. Well to me it makes no sense. Anyone could claim it if bennies are involved. And they are or there would not be such a fuss.
I don’t think that’s the camel’s NOSE.
I knew this was going to come up. Wait till gay couples start moving into base housing. Then you’ll reallys see the Exodus.
To inject a tiny bit of levity into a very serious situation, I recall being a very young pup in the military a long, long time ago and far, far away. There was a requirement to have the UCMJ read to the enlisted swine annually and, at one location, we had a young lieutenant who had quite a sense of humor. When he would reach the article dealing with sodomy, he would say, “OK fellows, here it comes.” Then he would intone, with great dignity, a passage from that article that went something like “Penetration, however slight, constitutes the act.” Of course, being the young rascals that we were, we would laugh and clap. That made his day and lessened the tedium of reading all of the articles.
The courts will take over the command and the details in the military and they will extend benefits. This act by Congress has handed the military over to the Judicial Branch.
I am so sick of thinking about this perversion. Dirty filthy philistines run this country. Sodomites your day is coming.
‘’The partners of gay service members will not AT THIS POINT be given any special rights or any rights that parallel those of a spouse.’’
... but expect that to happen down the road when the Americans turn back to their TVs.
Regards
Regards
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