Gay ary upl wele Pentagon cisn to extend benefs | US ary | The Guardian

Contents:

• GAY ARY UPL WELE PENTAGON CISN TO EXTEND BENEFS
• GAY SPO OF MEMBERS OF MILARY GET BENEFS
• SAME-SEX MARRIAGE NOW LEGAL FOR GAY MILARY COUPL ALL 50 STAT
• GAY, LBIAN SPO TO GA FULL BENEFS

GAY ARY UPL WELE PENTAGON CISN TO EXTEND BENEFS

WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials announced Wednday that the DOD will provi marriage benefs to same-sex upl for the first time, givg gay spo accs to health re, hog allowanc and fay separatn pay. The move ltle more than a month after the Supreme Court stck down the Defense of Marriage Act, which Defense Department lears have said prevented them om offerg feral marriage benefs to gay troops. Thirteen stat and the District of Columbia currently allow gay marriag.

Troops si the Uned Stat but statned more than 100 om a state that allows gay marriage will have seven days. Gay troops who are already legally married uld see retroactive benefs back to June 26, the date of the Supreme Court cisn.

Sce the ary’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” law was repealed 2011, gay rights advot have phed for extensn of the married uple benefs to same-sex troops, argug that the policy still amounted to discrimatn the ranks.

GAY SPO OF MEMBERS OF MILARY GET BENEFS

Mark Mazzone, spokman for the ary LGBT advocy group SPART*A, said the chang will be a fancial boost to many same-sex upl th far prived of equal benefs, and the leave time for travel to stat that allow same-sex marriage show the ary is mted to reachg out to gay troops. The chang apply only to “legally married same-sex upl” and not gay troops who have state-backed civil unns.

Back then, the US ary did not regnize out gay and lbian service – and certaly did not regnize gay subjected LGBT ary upl to the merci of plex burecraci – and, Nelson's se, visa, ctoms and immigratn thori – that never imperiled straight had overstayed his 90-day visa Germany. Ls than two months after the US supreme urt stck down a feral law fg marriage as a unn between a man and a woman, the Pentagon on Wednday unveiled a sweepg set of chang that extend to gay spo the same benefs available to straight on.

The extensn of marriage benefs to gay ary spo, an evable oute of DADT repeal, unrsr the sweepg cultural change that Ameri – not jt the ary – has experienced such a short perd of time. "They're now workg as fast as an Amerin ernment burecracy possibly n to provi equal benefs, " said Denny Meyer, a former navy enlisted sailor and army rerve nonmissned officer who now works as a spokman for Amerin Veterans for Equal Rights, which promot gay-straight equaly the ary. A new benefs policy released Wednday by the Pentagon go a step not all US stat regnize gay marriage, the ary is permtg 7 to 10 days of paid leave, not untable agast the 30 days of annual leave received by servicemembers, "for travel to a state or jurisdictn that allows same-sex upl to be married, " acrdg to a memorandum signed on Tuday by actg unr-secretary of fense for personnel and reads Jsi Wright.

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE NOW LEGAL FOR GAY MILARY COUPL ALL 50 STAT

"This will provi accelerated accs to the full range of benefs offered to married ary upl throughout the Department, and help level the playg field between oppose-sex and same-sex upl seekg to be married, " explaed navy Lt Comm Nate Christensen, a Pentagon sence, the Pentagon is not simply providg equal benefs to gay upl, is removg an stutnal roadblock to gay marriage among servicemembers – a change unthkable as recently as two years ago. Polics|Gay Spo of Members of Milary Get Benefs ADVERTISEMENTAug. A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 14 of the New York edn wh the headle: Gay Spo Of Members Of Milary Get Benefs.

Matt Thorn, terim executive director for OutServe-SLDN, an advocy group for gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr service members, said the Supreme Court's cisn was a msage to their muny "that...

Campaigners for equaly the ary have raised ncerns about a draft Pentagon plan to extend partner benefs to gay upl, sayg would force service members to get married even if they are statned one of the 37 stat where same-sex marriage is illegal. A draft memo om Chuck Hagel, the fence secretary, propos that gay or lbian service personnel mt be married orr for their partners to qualify for benefs.

GAY, LBIAN SPO TO GA FULL BENEFS

If they live stat where gay marriage is illegal, the plan suggts they be granted 10 days leave to travel to a state where is earlier proposal, announced before the cisn by the supreme urt June to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act (Doma), would have required gay and lbian upl to sign a claratn that they were mted 's memo said that the supreme urt cisn on Doma, which lifted the ban on feral regnn of same-sex marriage, elimated the need for the earlier proposals, which were published Febary.

However, crics say highlights the discrimatn gay and lbian people ntue to face 37 stat across the US.

"Jonathan Hopks, board member of Outserve, an anisatn for gay and lbians the ary, which has 7, 000 members, said the new plan was a "good-fah effort". "Hopks said Outserve is still batg the implitns of the draft proposals wh s members, but said that may be worth nsirg an optn for same-sex upl to have more ntrol over where they were marriage equaly mpaigners said that the proposals were a powerful Solomon, natnal mpaign director of Freedom to Marry, said: "Wh the unrstandg that is not fal, is a powerful and honourable gture by the Defense Department that rponds to the fact that there's a patchwork of marriage stat the untry so 's more difficult for gay and lbian service members to marry.