Tag: military

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After almost 60 years, an honorable discharge at last

US Marine Hal Faulkner receives his new Marine papers after almost 60 years

Seventy-nine year old Hal Faulkner, dying of terminal cancer, had one last wish.

Having entered the US Marines in 1953, he was given a dishonorable discharge in 1956.  The discharge papers read “homosexual.”  He avoided sharing that unearned shame with most for decades.

Although Faulkner had only come out to his family in 2005, with the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Faulkner asked his family for help with one last wish as his health waned.

He wanted his military record upgraded to clear his name. Time, however, was growing short. A correction of military records usually takes at least six months, as well as a lawyer.

The activist group OutServe-SLDN helped Faulkner get a pro-bono lawyer from the New York firm Winston & Strawn.

When lawyer Anne Brooksher-Yen saw the case and the time frame, she was worried, even when the military agreed to expedite the case.

“I didn’t know whether expedited was going to mean six weeks or six months,” Anne Brooksher-Yen says. “So I did have a conversation with him that we might not be able to get this done before he died.”

The Marines acted on his dying request in just two weeks. Last Friday in Florida, a small group presented Faulkner with his honorable discharge.

For Faulkner, it was never about the benefits, says his lawyer Anne Brooksher-Yen.

“It was really overwhelming seeing Hal finally have this wrong righted,” she says. “He is such a wonderful loving man, and he served with honor in the military and it was so important to him.”

“I don’t have much longer to live,” Faulkner said, “I will always be a Marine. Thank you. Semper fi.”

The young marines answered him back with the Marines battle cry: “Oorah.”

Fred Sainz of the HRC says many discharged as gay don’t know they could file for possible “honorable discharge” status. Such a change in paper work could lead to many well-deserved benefits like access to VA loans and health care.

Listen to the story from NPR:

(h/t TRR reader Candi)

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First same-sex ceremony held at Fort Bragg’s Main Post Chapel

Photo: Elizabeth Frantz

The first same-sex ceremony at Fort Bragg’s Main Post Chapel for a gay couple was held yesterday.

Major Daniel Toven and Johnathan Taylor, who wed in Washington, D.C. in August, blessed their marriage before more than 100 people at Fort Bragg on Saturday.

The ceremony — while not technically a wedding, which would be barred by state law — is believed to be the first for a same-sex couple at Fort Bragg.

The couple exchanged vows and were blessed in front of their family and friends packed in the chapel, which dates to 1934.

Soldiers in and out of uniform mixed with family and friends in the church pews during the Episcopal service, led by the Rev. Harry Abernathy.

Attendees at the service included a one-star general and a command sergeant major.

(tip from TRR reader Jim)

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Pentagon: All states now allowing same-sex spouses full benefits

Sec. of Defense Chuck Hagel has issued a statement saying all states are now complying with new post-DOMA/post-DADT rules allowing same-sex spouses of military members to get ID cards in order to claim benefits.

Nine states, including Texas, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi, initially defied the Pentagon by refusing to allow National Guard facilities to issue the ID cards, triggering sharp criticism from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

Under Pentagon policy that took effect Sept. 3, same-sex military spouses are eligible for the same health care, housing and other benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex spouses.

(source)

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First gay marriage announcement at US Coast Guard Academy

Kaitlin Ward (L) and Lauren Bloch (R)

A very cool bit of history was made at the US Coast Guard Academy last week.

From Buzzfeed:

It’s a tradition at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., that when a cadet becomes engaged to be married, the lucky man or woman’s friends will announce the engagement to the entire corps in the wardroom at lunchtime, the one meal that all four years of students eat together.

On Thursday, Dec. 5, the announcement was a little different. “Over the weekend, Cadet First Class Kaitlin Ward got down on one knee and proposed to her longtime girlfriend, Lauren Bloch. This is the first announcement of its type.”

There was a brief moment of silence as the room realized the significance of the announcement — the first in the school’s 137-year history — before the corps of cadets started cheering and whooping for their classmate and her fiancée, the latest couple who had met and fallen in love at the academy.

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Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel orders “rogue” states to follow federal guidelines and treat gay & lesbian military equally

While speaking at the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday night, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel addressed the rogue states which are refusing to issue spousal benefits at their National Guard facilities, saying their actions are wrong, hurt the military, and further prejudice.

South Carolina, Texas, Indiana, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and West Virginia are the states that are not in compliance with the Pentagon orders.

Here are Hagel’s remarks, via the White House:

When the Supreme Court issued its decision on the Defense of Marriage Act this summer, the Department of Defense immediately began working on providing the same benefits to all eligible spouses, regardless of sexual orientation. We did it because everyone who serves our country in uniform, everyone in this country, should receive all the benefits they deserve, and they’ve earned, and in accordance with the law. Everyone’s rights must be protected.

This means that all spouses of service members are entitled to DoD ID cards, and the benefits that come with them. But several states today are refusing to issue these IDs to same-sex spouses at National Guard facilities. Not only does this violate the states’ obligations under federal law, but their actions have created hardship and inequality by forcing couples to travel long distances to federal military bases to obtain the ID cards they’re entitled to.

This is wrong. It causes division among our ranks, and it furthers prejudice, which DoD has fought to extinguish, as has the ADL.

Today, I directed the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, General Frank Grass, to take immediate action to remedy this situation. At my direction, he will meet with the Adjutants General from the states where these ID cards are being declined and denied. The Adjutants General will be expected to comply with both lawful direction and DoD policy, in line with the practices of 45 other states and jurisdictions.

Whether they are responding to natural disasters here at home, in their states, or fighting in Afghanistan, our National Guardsmen all wear the uniform of the United States of America. They are serving this country. They – and their families – are entitled to all the benefits and respect accorded to all of our military men and women.

(via Towleroad)

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Army Ranger Ken Yasger Invites Katy Perry to the 2013 Ranger Ball

Army Ranger Ken Yasger invites Katy Perry to the 2013 Ranger Ball

I think this is so sweet.

What our musical heroes do for us and our lives is hard to quantify. The impact, the lift, how they help us carry ourselves through the days.

I applaud Army Ranger Yasger here. Honest, direct and open-hearted. I’m keeping my fingers crossed he gets a response from Katy Perry.

From International Business Times:

In a new video uploaded by Yasger, the first openly gay Ranger in his unit, he requests the company of “Roar” singer Katy Perry at his Ranger Ball later this month.

“Katherine Elizabeth Hudson, I would like to formally invite you to the Ranger Ball October 10, 2013. Katy Perry, will you please go to the Ranger Ball with me?” said Yasger in the two-minute clip, all the while blasting Perry’s single “E.T.” in the background.

According to Yasger, Perry’s three studio albums and film “Part of Me” have been his solace while serving overseas. He tells the singer that her music speaks to him in a way no other artist’s does. “Katy, you’re an inspiration to me in a lot of ways, and this is what this video is for. This is the reason I’m inviting you and no other celebrity,” he said, adding his struggles with being an openly gay soldier have been helped through listening to her singles, specifically the 2012 hit song “Wide Awake.” “Your music really helped me get through it. I had family, friends, they helped me also, but I’d wake up in the morning and I’d been feeling really down… I’d listen to it while I got ready in the morning. No matter how down I felt, I would listen to that song and it would really help me get started for the day,” he said.

At this writing, the YouTube video has almost 20,000 views.

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Attorney General: Military will grant all benefits to spouses of gay military

The Department of Justice will not enforce Title 38, a law barring gay veterans from spousal benefits, the Washington Blade reports:

In a letter dated Sept. 4, U.S. Attorney Eric Holder notifies U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) of the change in the way the Justice Department will enforce Title 38 of the U.S. code.

“[I]n light of subsequent developments and my recommendation, the President has directed the Executive Branch to cease enforcement of Sections 101(3) and 101(31) of Title 38,” Holder writes. “Decisions by the Executive Branch not to enforce federal laws are appropriately rare. Nonetheless, for the reasons described below, the unique circumstances here warrant non-enforcement.”

From the White House via press release:

The language, contained within Title 38 of the U.S. Code, has, until now, prevented the Executive Branch from providing spousal benefits to veterans—and in some instances active-duty service members and reservists—who are in same-sex marriages recognized under state law.

In a letter to Congressional leaders, Holder stated that the President’s decision was consistent with the Court’s decision in Windsor in June.

“Although the Supreme Court did not directly address the constitutionality of the Title 38 provisions in Windsor, the reasoning of the opinion strongly supports the conclusion that those provisions are unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment,” Holder wrote.

(via Towleroad)

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Texas National Guard refuses benefits to married same-sex couple

Tuesday marks the first day that the U.S. armed forces started offering partner benefits, including military IDs, to troops with same-sex spouses after a period of implementation this year. In the wake of the Supreme Court decision against the Defense of Marriage Act, gay troops are now eligible for major spousal benefits, including health and pension benefits as well as equal access to housing.

Alicia Butler, an Austin, Texas, attorney, said she was rejected when she tried to register with the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, or DEERS, the military’s health benefits system, when she applied on Tuesday at Camp Mabry, where her spouse, Judith Chedville, a nurse and Iraq war veteran, is stationed as a member of the National Guard.

“We were told that Texas would not register us into the system and would not issue an ID card for me,” Butler said. “We were told that if she was active duty they would do that for me, but not for a National Guard member because she’s part of the Texas National Guard.”

The explanation the couple was given, Butler said, was that they were denied because she and her spouse are the same gender. Butler said she and her spouse were legally married in California.

The American Military Partner Association, an LGBT military group, says it was leaked guidance indicating that Texas Military Forces, or the Texas National Guard, wouldn’t honor the U.S. armed forces’ plan to begin offering partner benefits to gay troops because the Texas Constitution prohibits same-sex marriage.

“The TXMF is a state agency under the authority and direction of the Texas state government,” the guidance states. “Therefore, the TXMF must consider that the Texas Constitution and Texas Family Code 6.204 conflicts with the DoD policy extending benefits to same-sex spouses. Due to this potential conflict, we are unable to enroll same-sex families into DEERs at our state supported facilities until we receive legal clarification.”

Similar to what Butler and Chedville were told, the guidance says troops who are affected by this issue should seek a federal facility to apply for benefits.

“However, the TXMF remains committed to ensuring its military personnel and their families receive the benefits to which they are entitled,” the guidance states. “As such, we encourage anyone affected by this issue to enroll for benefits at a federal installation.”

More at the Washington Blade

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President Obama says he’s “confident” Congress will authorize use of force against Syria

President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he was confident that Congress would vote in favor of U.S. military action in Syria and said the United States had a broader plan to help rebels defeat President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

During a meeting with congressional leaders at the White House, Obama called for a prompt vote on Capitol Hill and reiterated that the U.S. plan would be limited in scope and not repeat the long U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said after a White House meeting that he supports the president’s “call for action” against Syria, and he believes most other Republicans will do so as well.

“The use of chemical weapons is a barbarous act,” Boehner said. “The use of these weapons has to be responded to.”

Eric Cantor, the number two in the House, has also stated his support.

Republican Senators McCain and Graham are also onboard now.

This is a done deal.

More at USA Today.