In the continuing search for eventful news about the “non-event” of homosexuality in the US military, a few news outlets were quick to ping Hill Air Force Base after Utah’s ban on homosexual “marriage” was overturned:

With same-sex marriage legal in Utah, Hill Air Force Base has become one of the few U.S. military installations where such unions can be performed.

It would seem the press was steps ahead even of those who were interested:

As of Thursday, no same-sex marriages had occurred at Hill, said base spokesman Richard Essary…

The base may yet see a whiplash, as the entire military did with the back and forth over DADT, as Utah appealed to the Supreme Court for an emergency order enforcing the ban on recognition of same-sex unions until the case is appealed — and the stay was granted.

Interestingly, while the chapel can be used for such ceremonies, none of the chaplains on the base can perform them, as their sending endorsers do not “affirm” homosexuality.

The media hyped the fact Hill was “one of the few” where such weddings could be performed, which might be accurate — but it hasn’t stopped everything-but-the-word-wedding ceremonies at bases around the country. Fort Polk (in the deep South) and McGuire AFB hosted non-marital wedding-like ceremonies more than a year ago, and Fort Bragg recently did the same (much to the chagrin of former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt).

If a ceremony exactly like a wedding can be held in a military chapel where such weddings aren’t permitted, it would seem the prohibition is academic.

Also at the AP and the Air Force Times.

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