President Obama’s administration has registered its objections to several portions of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act passed by the US House (which also includes another attempt to ban NASCAR sponsorships).
The Obama administration “strongly objects” to provisions in [the bill] that would prohibit the use of military property for same-sex “marriage or marriage-like” ceremonies, and protect military chaplains Read more
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, concerned over instances of “misbehavior” that have shed negative light on the US military, issued a “personal plea” for US troops to “honor their military values:”
“These days, it takes only seconds — seconds — for a picture, a photo, to suddenly become an international headline,” Panetta said. “And those headlines can impact the mission that we’re engaged in, they can put your fellow service members at risk, they can hurt morale, they can damage our standing in the world, and they can cost lives.”
The sentiment was reportedly echoed by the top commander in Afghanistan:
Marine Gen. John Allen…believes that a number of major setbacks in the past six months have resulted from moral, Read more
Update: The committee passed the religious freedom legislation as amendments to the NDAA. The legislation has the support of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
The House Armed Services Committee is going to debate the Military Religious Freedom Act, which the Air Force Times says US Rep Todd Akin (R-Mo) will let troops and chaplains “openly oppose gays.”
Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., is specifically aiming to protect religious freedom by allowing service members and chaplains to openly oppose gay and lesbian lifestyles and the presence of gay Read more
Some may have assumed that with a Democratic President (and the stereotype that the US military leans Republican/conservative), most of those testing the limits of permissible political activities or commentary would be “right wing” or conservatives.
They would be wrong.
The blog for the Rock Beyond Belief event organized by Justin Griffith at Fort Bragg recently posted an article about North Carolina’s Amendment 1, which would modify the NC State Constitution to say the only domestic legal union in the state is Read more
US Rep Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) introduced the Military Religious Freedom Act (HR 3828), which aims to prevent chaplains and other troops from being “penalized” for failing to support homosexuals in the military.
It would exempt chaplains from functions that violate their Read more
Juan Garcia, an assistant to the Secretary of the Navy for manpower, says Secretary Ray Mabus wants a service where opportunities are “gender blind.” To that end, the Navy is floating the idea of ending gender-specific hats.
“It’s a small thing, but separate covers was in some ways emblematic of a two-tiered sea service force,” Garcia said in an April 10 interview, speaking about Mabus. “He wanted to take a look across the force…to send a signal that our Navy … reward[s] and keep[s] the best talent, regardless of gender.”
Unisex uniforms are nothing new. In fact, the Air Force recently Read more
US Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA) has reportedly asked the US Navy to name a ship after Harvey Milk, a homosexual activist who was killed while serving as a San Francisco supervisor in 1978. Milk also served in the Navy in the early 1950s — apparently illegally, Read more
US Army PFC Bradley Manning has been scheduled to go on trial this fall to face charges he was responsible for the unauthorized release of hundreds of thousands of classified documents.
The judge recently Read more