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Chief Warrant Officer Charlie Morgan, the New Hampshire National Guard soldier who recently returned from deployment in Kuwait, will be bringing her same-sex partner of 11 years to a yellow ribbon family reintegration event in North Conway this weekend.
Federal military regulations had previously banned same-sex spouses of National Guard Members from participating in official National Guard family events. The rules were based on an interpretation of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the extension of military benefits to same sex couples. Tuesday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta urging the Department of Defense "in the strongest terms" to end the discriminatory policy.
“We made the decision as a nation that it was time to allow gay and lesbian soldiers to serve openly in our military,” Shaheen said. “It makes no sense to ask them for the same sacrifice we ask of straight soldiers while denying them the same benefits. We are better than this.”
Yesterday, the Department of Defense ruled that Chief Morgan may take advantage of a regulation that allows service members to designate any one person, regardless of relationship, to join her at a yellow ribbon event.
“This is terrific news for Charlie Morgan and her family,” said Shaheen. “But this is just one small part of a much larger problem. We have a fundamental inequity in our policy, which has created two classes of soldiers. It isn’t fair and it has to end.”
“Ultimately, this conflict in our military policy is not sustainable,” Shaheen said. “We cannot ask the members of our military to live under different standards depending on whether they are gay or straight. I urge the military to do all it can under the law to promote equality in their regulations, and I urge Congress to join me in the fight to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.”
