Free Republic

The nine remaining states that were refusing to extend full benefits to troops with same-sex spouses have formerly dropped their opposition. “All military spouses and families sacrifice on behalf of our country,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement Friday, the Military Times reported. “They deserve our respect and the benefits they are entitled to under the law.”

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has ordered the National Guard to stop processing requests for military benefits for same-sex couples. Fallin spokesman Alex Weintz told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the governor was following the wish of Oklahoma voters, who approved a constitutional amendment that prohibits giving benefits of marriage to gay couples. …

The Pentagon is poised to extend health care, housing and other benefits to the same-sex spouses of military members by the end of August, but may reverse earlier plans to provide benefits to gay partners who are not married. According to a draft Defense Department memo obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, the department instead may provide up to 10 days of leave to military personnel in same-sex relationships so they can travel to states where they can marry legally. While no final decisions have been made, the memo from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to top defense leaders would reverse...

Rights fight pits Holder vs. PanettaThe Obama administration is withholding medical and other benefits from same-sex spouses of military members, but Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. says he can no longer defend the law that authorizes the practice. Conservatives are charging that Mr. Holder is going back on Pentagon promises to adhere to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in the September repeal of the ban on open gays in the military. Military promises to enforce DOMA, which defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman, induced some fence-sitting members of Congress to support the...

Beginning this month, Yale will join the small number of United States colleges and universities that help offset a federal tax gay and lesbian employees pay on health coverage received by their partners. Though same-sex marriage is legal in Connecticut, it is not recognized under federal law, so domestic partner health benefits are considered taxable income — levying an additional cost on homosexual couples that those in heterosexual marriages do not face. In a reversal from past years, Yale will now pay both employees with same-sex spouses or in civil unions $1,500 a year to help cover the cost of...

A spokesman for the American Family Association says a Republican homosexual activist group doesn't belong at a popular conservative political conference in February. The homosexual activist group GOProud, an offshoot of the Log Cabin Republicans, boasts on its website that it will be a co-sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington on February 18-20. Jimmy LaSalvia, executive director of GOProud, says taking part in CPAC "is one of the most important things [GOProud] will do all year," and affords the homosexual activist group "an incredible opportunity to deliver [its] message." GOProud advocates same-sex "marriage," a repeal of...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Efforts to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage foundered Wednesday afternoon when the proposal failed to garner enough votes in the Senate to stay alive. After final arguments by the leaders of each party, Republicans mustered 48 votes, 12 short of the 60 they needed to overcome a procedural hurdle and move the proposed amendment to the floor.