From Pink News UK: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/05/19/republicans-hastily-add-anti-equal-marriage-coda-to-a-defence-bill/
by Edmund Broch
19 May 2012
19 May 2012
In a sign that equal marriage might be made a more prominent issue than previously thought, following President Obama’s support for the measure,
Republican-led House of Representatives have hastily added a provision
on to a large-scale defence bill that would ban equal marriage
ceremonies at military chapels.
The annual National Defense
Authorization Act [sic], worth some $642 billion this year, is usually a
bipartisan bill, and so, it is something lawmakers might find it
difficult to oppose, US media reports say. It includes a 1.7% annual
pay-raise for troops, and some have expressed frustration that
politically charged issues are being grafted on to it, just so the bill
would pass through.
As such, the White House had threatened to
veto the bill, despite the tradition to make it bipartisan, as the
Congress broke the agreement made with the Obama administration in
adding extra $8 billion to the budget.
Now, the coda grafted on
equal marriage would ban same-sex ceremonies, even those that were not
‘marriage,’ on all military facilities, and in addition, would protect
military chaplains from punishment if they declined to marry a gay
couples.
This measure comes in response to the announcement by Department of Defense last year that, after the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’
military chaplains were allowed to conduct weddings for gay couples,
though they were not required. One spokesperson for the Department told
PinkNews.co.uk that, to his knowledge, there have been no same-sex
ceremonies in military chapels so far.
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