Texas, Miss. National Guard refuse to process benefits for gay couples

[DriftingCrow]

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/4/texas-miss-nationalguardrefusetoprocessbenefitsforgaycouples.html
Source: Al-Jazeera America (No author listed)

"The Texas National Guard refused to process requests for benefits from married same-sex couples on Tuesday, despite a Pentagon directive. The same day, Mississippi's National Guard said it wouldn't issue gay couples applications for benefits from state-owned offices. Both states cited their respective bans on gay marriage. [. . . ] Pentagon officials said Texas appeared to be the only state with a total ban on processing applications from gay and lesbian couples."

Texas and Missississippi are the only two states that place limits on benefits for same-sex partners of National Guard members.

[Michelle-G]

That won't last long.  These benefits are Federal benefits, not state benefits, and failure to properly execute Army (in the case of the National Guard) or Air Force (for the Air National Guard) policies and regulations will invalidate their program and bring unwanted Federal attention that goes way beyond this particular matter.

It's political posturing to make a point, and they already know how this story will end.  I'll bet that by the beginning of the fiscal year (October 1), the governors publicly complain about how they were "forced" to accept this (they were obligated the minute they established the Guard in their states) despite the "wishes of the people of their state", blah, blah, blah.

[Jamie D]

The recent US Supreme Court case left the issue in legal limbo.

The respective State National Guard units are under state control unless federalized.  The C&C of the Texas military, for instance, is the Governor, not the President.  As the Washington Post article notes,

"Due to this potential conflict, we are unable to enroll same-sex families . . . at our state-supported facilities until we receive legal clarification," [General] Nichols said. The Texas National Guard clarified in a statement that it has requested guidance from the state's attorney general's office but did not say whether it was consulting with the Pentagon....

The Texas National Guard said Wednesday that its policy will not prevent same-sex spouses from applying for federal benefits. "It is important to note that this is not a denial of benefits, rather it is a processing issue," said agency spokeswoman Lt. Col. Joanne MacGregor.

[DriftingCrow]

Legal Group Sets Up Challenge To Texas National Guard's Decision On Gay Couples' Marriages
http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/legal-group-sets-up-challenge-to-texas-national-guards-decis
Author: Chris Geidner Source: BuzzFeed

"An LGBT legal group has given the Texas National Guard 10 days to respond to its request that it begin enrolling same-sex spouses of service members into the federal Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) at its facilities. DEERS is the system used to process military benefits, including providing service members and their families with the military ID card that gives them access to military facilities and other services." It's likely the group Lambda Legal will go to court next.

The Texas National Guard says that can't process the benefits for same-sex couples due to the Texas state Constitution.