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GOP Introduces New Legislation to Ban Same-Sex Marriages In Military

It should not be surprising that there is another attempt by Republicans to restrict the freedom of religion of various chaplains in the military by banning their ability to engage in the ceremonies that their religion condones. Kansas Representative Tim Huelskamp has introduced a bill that would ban same-sex marriage on military installations.

One portion of the bill reads:

A military chaplain shall not be directed, ordered, or required to perform any duty, rite, ritual, ceremony, service, or function that is contrary to the conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs of the chaplain or contrary to the moral principles or religious beliefs of the chaplain’s faith group. The refusal by a military chaplain to perform a duty, rite, ritual, ceremony, service, or function that is contrary to the conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs of the chaplain or contrary to the moral principles or religious beliefs of the chaplain’s faith group shall not be the basis for any adverse personnel action, discrimination, or denial of promotion, schooling, training, or assignment.

This is redundant since military regulations already state that chaplains are not required to perform any ceremony that they do not wish to. In fact, the military has stated emphatically that chaplains can choose what marriages they officiate over, and the only places that same-sex couples can get married or have a ceremony are in those locations where same-sex marriage or civil unions are legal.

Welcome to another example of wasting taxpayer time and money. Perhaps Huelskamp would like to do something useful like get funding to find out if there is a link between nose picking and brain cancer or something.

The problematic section of this bill is, of course, where it says “A military installation or other property owned, rented, or otherwise under the jurisdiction or control of the Department of Defense shall not be used to officiate, solemnize, or perform a marriage or marriage-like ceremony involving anything other than the union of one man with one woman.”

Again, the military has stated that the facilities that are open for use are only those which are in states that have marriage equality legislation already set. There is, of course, no logical reason to deny these facilities from being used, but it is not surprising that they would decide to try and make this restriction.

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network outgoing Executive Director and Army Veteran Aubrey Sarvis stated in relation to this legislation “Here they go again with another round of resistance tactics that have already been rejected by Congress and the American people. There is no need for the so-called ‘protections’ in this bill or the proposed regulations. No chaplain today is being required or pressured to marry anyone, straight or gay. Period. The bill’s ban on use of military facilities and chaplains officiating at ceremonies for gay and lesbian service members is nothing more than plain, old-fashion discrimination. There is no place for that prejudice in our armed forces or in our country.”