Tag Archives: fort bragg

Atheist Call their own Monument Mere Counterpoint, Attack

The group American Atheists recently installed a granite monument in front of the Bradford County courthouse in Starke, Florida.  The group placed the monument there as the result of a compromise, after a local Christian group refused to remove their Ten Commandments monument — and then both groups filed First Amendment lawsuits.

David Silverman, the American Atheists president, called his own monument a “counterpoint” and an “attack.”

“We’re not going to let them do it without Read more

Military Spouse of the Year: Devout Christian, Homosexual

Ashley Broadway, the homosexual who complained about being denied membership in a Fort Bragg spouses’ group, has been named the “spouse of the year” for Fort Bragg in a popular vote called the Spouse of the Year program.

In the online election held Tuesday, Ashley Broadway captured the Fort Bragg vote “by a country mile,” said Babette Maxwell, founder of Military Spouse magazine and the Military Spouse of the Year award. Ballot totals were not revealed. As one of the 154 base-level winners, Broadway now is eligible to be nominated for Army “spouse of the year.”

As the “spouse of the year program” is a private operation, Read more

Homosexual Advocates Lament Lack of Military Benefits

A veritable plethora of articles were published over the weekend highlighting the fact “spouses” of homosexual service members don’t have access to the benefits of heterosexual married families.

  • On January 19th, multiple media sites noted homosexual Ashley Broadway had declined the invitation of the Fort Bragg spouse’s group to be a “special guest.”  Broadway doesn’t meet the group’s criteria for membership as she isn’t a military spouse.
  • The same day, the New York Times told the story of US Army Lt Nakisha Hardy, who was awkwardly asked to leave a chaplain-run marriage retreat because she was a homosexual.
  • The next day, the Associated Press highlighted US Army Sgt Karen Alexander’s financial struggles, as she doesn’t get family pay rates that married troops do.
  • On the same day, the Stars and Stripes republished a local paper’s article noting homosexual National Guard member SSgt Tracy Dice is “not considered war widow,” though her “wife” was killed in Afghanistan.

This lack of “fairness” was, of course, always known Read more

Pentagon Backs Army Spouse Club on Homosexuals

According to Buzzfeed, the Pentagon has supported Fort Bragg’s stance that an Army spouse group is not required to accept homosexuals:

Pentagon spokesman Nathan Christensen explained the current policy to BuzzFeed: “When [a private group] asks for authority to operate on a base, it must comply with all applicable DOD instructions and directives and laws, in this case [Department of Defense Instruction] 1000.15.”…

A Pentagon spokesman added late Tuesday that the Department of Defense “neither drafts, executes nor exercises control over the Club or its governing documents. Private organizations who adhere to the criteria outlined in applicable instructions are allowed base access.”

Technically, the Pentagon isn’t backing the group — they’re backing the law.  Since neither federal law nor military regulations require special accommodation based on sexual preference, neither does the Army.

If that’s the official Pentagon interpretation, though, it may leave some Marine lawyers in an awkward position.

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USMC Lawyers say Spouse Groups Must Accept Homosexuals

If DADT repeal was such a benign ‘non-event,’ why are incidents like this erupting into scandals more than a year later?

The top lawyer in the US Marine Corps has reportedly told the Marine legal community that, to avoid “a stir” as seen at Fort Bragg, spouse groups operating on Marine installations must accept homosexuals:

The memo noted that spouses clubs and various other private institutions are allowed to operate on bases only if they adhere to a non-discrimination policy encompassing race, religion, gender, age, disability and national origin.

“We would interpret a spouses club’s decision to exclude a same-sex spouse as sexual discrimination because the exclusion was based upon the spouse’s sex,” the memo said.

This appears to be legal advice within the legal community and, as noted before, military lawyers do not make decisions about military policy (nor are they always right).  However, the article does not cite a Marine policymaker Read more

Homosexual Denied Membership in Army Spouse’s Club

Update: The Fort Bragg spouse group says some of the public accusations against them are “misrepresented.”

A homosexual woman lodged a public complaint after being denied membership in Fort Bragg’s “Association of Officers’ Spouses.”

[Ashley] Broadway said the social group — which is not an official military organization — told her she could not join because while she has a marriage certificate, she doesn’t have a military spouse ID…

Broadway says the clause about the ID card was added after she was denied, in what she believes was an effort to exclude same-sex spouses.

Broadway has indicated that she “has a case…because the group violated their by-laws.”  Notably, that hinges on the definition of the word spouse.   Federally, homosexuals are not recognized as “married.”  In North Carolina, which is where Fort Bragg is located, the state Constitution defines marriage as a man and woman.  In that regard, Broadway’s argument fails because she isn’t a “spouse,” though that may still depend on one’s political leanings.

Conveniently, Broadway works for the American Military Partner Association — which, just coincidentally, is a homosexual advocacy group focused on obtaining benefits for homosexual partners of military members.

Naturally, her group publicized the decision and condemned it:  Read more

Top 10 ChristianFighterPilot.com Stories for 2012

It’s the time of year for lists and summaries, and various sites and groups are compiling their “best of” and “mostest” lists for 2012.  Consistent with last year’s apparent trend, issues of religion and the military seem to have largely fallen from the visibility they once had.  For example, BJC online lists their “Top Religious Stories of 2012” — not one of which references the military.  Likewise the Christian Post.  The Religion Clause and the Stars and Stripes lists both made only one relevant reference, to the much delayed Fort Hood massacre trial.

Curious as to what others were reading here this year?  The Top 10 most-read stories on ChristianFighterPilot.com for 2012 are Read more

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