Almost immediately after President Obama finally “concluded” what millions of Americans have already concluded for years — the right of a man or a woman to marry the person he or she loves — Republican lawmakers “concluded” that, after all, the military they so fiercely support do not deserve the same rights all Americans have.
Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee, just hours after the President gave his opinion on same-sex marriage, passed two measures contradicting both their “support the troops” and their religious freedom clarion calls.
Just hours after Mr. Obama tried to lead the nation forward, the House Armed Services Committee was turning the clock back. On a 37-to-24 party-line vote, the committee approved an amendment to the annual military budget bill that would bar the use of a “military installation or other property owned or rented by, or otherwise under the jurisdiction or control of the Department of Defense” for a same-sex marriage or “marriage-like ceremony.”
According to the Times, this measure “is intended to undermine the law that lifted ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ and to interfere with the laws in states that allow same-sex marriage.”
The other amendment passed by the Republican controlled House Armed Services Committee says the military must accommodate “the conscience and sincerely held moral principles and religious beliefs of the members of the Armed Forces concerning the appropriate and inappropriate expression of human sexuality,” according to the Times.
Noting that the sponsor of this measure, Missouri Republican Representative Todd Akin, is “competing in a three-way primary to run against the state’s incumbent Democratic senator, Claire McCaskill, in the fall,” the Times concludes:
Mr. Obama said his support for same-sex marriage was motivated in part by his recognition of the injustice of not recognizing the right of gay soldiers, airmen, Marines or sailors fighting for their country to marry the people they love. It is sad that Mr. Akin and his colleagues share no similar feeling.
The Senate needs to strip the two offensive amendments from the final bill.
Read more here.
