Despite Law Repeal, Same-Sex Military Couples Will Receive Few Benefits
Jul 24th, 2011 | 6 responses
When New York’s law allowing same sex marriages goes into effect this weekend, a host of civil benefits and legal protection will become available to the newly married couples—except for members of the U.S. military.
Why? Well, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) “prohibits military officials from granting medical coverage, housing allowances and a host of other married-couple benefits to same-sex partners,” according to an article in the Stars and Stripes this weekend:
That leaves same-sex married troops with fewer benefits than their heterosexual military counterparts and their homosexual civilian government co-workers. Gay rights groups say that will be the next focus of their advocacy work, once the “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal is finalized.
Read more about it here.
6 Responses to “Despite Law Repeal, Same-Sex Military Couples Will Receive Few Benefits”
Gay marriage has always been about getting more government goodies. I wonder when the first lawsuit will be filed to get backdated government goodies?
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“Gay marriage has always been about getting more government goodies. I wonder when the first lawsuit will be filed to get backdated government goodies?”
Is that why you got married?
In any case, I’m hoping for lawsuits as soon as possible.
Speaking as a gay man, I cannot call this government goodies. Indeed, in many cases, I’d say it is to avoid government interference. It is about the ability to provide for a person who is more caring for the deceased than the parents who kicked their child out of the car. Equally important is the ability to ensure that a child is adopted by parents, and cannot be taken away from one parent if the other dies. It is to avoid lengthy, fruitless will contests. Yes, there are tax benefits for the couple, but they pale in comparison to the other important benefits that attend marriage.
I think there is a very strong legal argument for equal benefits fo military same-sex couples. In Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973), the U.S. Supreme Court considered a military benefits policy that allowed male service members to automatically claim their wives as dependents, but required female service members to prove their husbands were actually dependent upon them. Applying heightened scrutiny, the Court struck down the policy as impermissible classification regarding who could receive military benefits that attach to marriage.
Applying Lawrence, I believe that heightened scrutiny should also be applied to discriminating based on sexual orientation in the receipt of military benefits attached to marriage.
If that is the standard applied, then the precedent from Frontiero would seem to me to be directly on point.